


Eternal

by ConfusedMuse



Series: Reapertale [1]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternative Universe - Reapertale, Bad Puns, Death, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Inspired By Tumblr, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-18
Updated: 2018-04-07
Packaged: 2018-05-14 19:39:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 23,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5755762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ConfusedMuse/pseuds/ConfusedMuse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Despite being tied together by the cycle of fate, the older God of Death has never met the Goddess of Life. When the aftermath of a reaping causes him to stumble upon the Goddess's garden, neither of them realize that their relationship will not only change each other, but also the nature of the world itself. That is, if they can survive what the dark forces outside the cycle of life and death have planned for them...</p><p>[Based on the Reapertale AU from renrink on Tumblr! Rating and warnings apply to future chapters.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Start

**Author's Note:**

  * For [KarenR2](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KarenR2/gifts).



> I have so many Undertale fics in the works right now, but I just had to set aside some time to work on this one in particular! (Especially since I wanted to have this up about a month ago, but holidays happened, what can you do?) I'm in love with the Reapertale AU, and since renrink has given the go-ahead for other people to interpret it the way they want to, I can't say no to writing some Greek mythology inspired fic! I used to be quite obsessed with it back in the day...
> 
> Anyway, I borrow heavily from renrink's comics on the AU, so they get full credit for those concepts! However, I did develop things in what I'm pretty sure is a different direction than what renrink intends to do on their own, so hopefully this AU of an AU will still be fun for everyone to read! Thanks for checking this out, and I hope you all enjoy it!

Sometimes Sans wondered how humans would act if they could see the color of their souls.

If they could, he had no doubt that the world would be much different.

Four of them were in front of him right now, burning so bright that he could still see them even if he closed his eyes. The emotions the humans felt in this moment made their colors stand out even more.

Sans stood in the dark doorway, waiting, watching. Two glowed green with kindness. Another was orange with bravery. They clustered around the fourth, a deep blue.

“Just keep pushing!” a green soul said.

The fourth human was in a chair, panting, their face red and slick with sweat. Their round belly bulged underneath them, straining against the fabric of the white dress the human was wearing. The elaborate gold jewelry around the human’s neck and arms jangled together as their body tensed, contrasting with their shouts of pain. The two green souls went to hold the blue one’s hands as the orange one stooped to the ground.

“Almost there…” the orange human said.

Sans leaned against the doorway, resting the end of his chained scythe against his shoulder. Yes, it wouldn’t be too long now, but he wasn’t concerned with the birth of a new human happening right in front of him.

Once this reaping was over, he was taking a break.

He reached out a hand, and a glowing hourglass appeared from the ground below it, floating upwards into his grasp. It pulsed blue light through the cracks of the bones of Sans’s hand. He looked at the stream of sand at the top that was dwindling with every passing second.

“Ah, the baby’s head—!”

Sans looked up as the green souls leaned forward. The blue one let out one last cry, and the orange soul reached forward—

Sans set his jaw in preparation for that first wail—

But the room was silent except for the blue soul’s heavy breathing.

The last grain of sand circled the hourglass and fell to the bottom. Sans sighed and pushed himself up from the doorway, his black robe flaring out around him.

Time to go to work.

The other souls were speaking, but their voices faded to blurs in the background as he crossed the room. The blue soul glanced around, confused, and then their eyes latched on to him. Sans stopped, staring back at them in silence as their eyes grew wider and rounder, their mouth opening and closing in shock.

They started to shake their head, long gold earrings that Sans hadn’t noticed earlier bouncing against their cheeks. He continued to stare at them, waiting for the begging to start.

“No no _no!“_ the blue soul shouted, their voice echoing in this altered space. “Please no, please not my child, my only child—”

They cut themselves off as the orange soul rose, carrying the silent baby away. The blue soul’s wide eyes followed them as they passed the bundle of cloth to one of the green souls. They said something, but their voices sounded like echoes from underwater, unintelligible. The human glanced between them and Sans, mouth open.

“heh. figures a human would jump to conclusions,” Sans said. He held the hourglass in one hand, the chained scythe in the other. “i still have to wait to see if that kid’s time ever starts,” Sans continued. “but yours on the other hand—“ He shook the hourglass and raised the scythe, the blade glinting in the light.

_“your time is already up.”_

He swung down before the human could react, and their body went limp, falling forward. He heard the other green soul scream as the body fell to the ground. The blue heart, invisible to the humans, rose up out of the shell of the human, floating above them like a grave marker.

Shifting the end of the chain scythe back to his shoulder, Sans held out his hand once more, cupping the heart with his bony fingers. The light from the hourglass was gone, but the soul burned brighter in death than it had in life, throwing every splotch and distortion of color into sharp relief.

Sans pulled the soul closer, its light illuminating the inside of his cowl. It’s dominant color was blue for integrity, but the shades on this soul were warped. Sans tapped the soul with his thumb, making the blue heart spin on his palm. He caught sight of splotches of green towards the bottom. Sans sighed.

Blue splattered with green. Integrity dipped in greed. A shame. This one would have to be judged.

Later.

Sans slipped the soul inside its now dark hourglass, hanging it on his belt as the green soul continued to wail on the ground next to the human’s remains. Sans could only stare. He never understood this part. Their bodies were just a container for what he took. There was no point in mourning over a husk.

“The baby… It’s still not…”

Sans turned to see the orange soul shaking their head over the tiny body cradled in the other green soul’s arms. “What a tragedy,” they said. “Both mother and child lost—”

He raised his scythe, waiting another breath before moving. This was usually the kind of thing his brother handled, but since he was already here—

But before Sans could swing down once more, a warmth filled the room.

The scythe dropped to his side, chain rattling. A flame smaller than the bones that made up Sans’s thumbs appeared above the baby’s chest. It settled into the infant’s body that same way the hourglass had risen up from the ground earlier. Visible only to a god’s eyes, the baby glowed from within for a moment before the color of their soul began to shine through. 

Purple for perseverance.

The baby began to cry.

The orange soul began to laugh as the green soul covered her mouth in shock. “A miracle!” the orange one said. “The Goddess has granted us a miracle!”

Her magic was gone, but her warmth and kindness lingered. Sans was rooted to the spot, watching as the second green soul finally abandoned the body to join the excitement over the baby’s wailing. He wasn’t /that/ surprised. Humans were quick to abandon the old for the new.

Only the screaming newborn had the right idea.

Sometimes Sans wondered what kind of goddess would continue granting her gift in the middle of such tragedy. He saw what the end of that warmth brought humans. Many of them left the world crying and screaming in the same way.

Sans could see the dim blue glow of the mother’s soul from underneath his cloak. He wondered if the Goddess thought highly of herself, separating two related souls this way.

“Both the God of Death and the Goddess of Life have visited us on this day,” Sans heard the orange soul say. “May they continue to watch over us with mercy.”

Sans readjusted his hood and turned away. He wondered if they would say the same thing if they knew that he was the only one who had appeared.

It was past time for him to take a break.


	2. The Spiral

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “i don’t have a problem with the cycle,” Sans said. “i have a problem with having a goddess of life who never shows up to take responsibility for her magic.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the incredibly long delay in updating this! This chapter took far longer than I expected it to… But the story is starting to take shape now, and hopefully the length will make up for the wait. Thank you for all the nice comments on the first chapter! They gave me the determination to keep going with my alternative take! I hope that you will all enjoy this chapter as well, and thanks again for reading!
> 
> As always, RenRink gets the credit for coming up with this AU! Thanks for letting me play around with the idea buddy!

Contrary to what the humans believed, most of the Underworld was bright.

Sans took off his hood and let the familiar blue light of the upper levels wash over him. The first few levels of the Underworld looked like caverns, complete with dirty rock walls and dripping stalactites, but the whole area was filled with a soft blue light that couldn’t be replicated in the mortal realm.

The cavern path turned slightly, and Sans followed it down. The doorway he’d passed through on the surface had taken him to the beginning of the Underworld’s Spiral, the stopping point at this part of the cycle where the reaped souls were kept. The Spiral turned tighter and tighter on itself until it finally ended at the center of the world, where the souls deemed unfit to re-enter the cycle were kept at the bottom. But up here at the higher levels, the space was plentiful and the light was soothing.

Sans turned the corner and felt the glowing blue hourglass on his belt tug a little in their new direction. The cavern opened up before him, the path splitting in front of a silver gate. It was taller and wider than any human structure, and hundreds of times bigger than Sans himself. The criss-crossing sections of the gate loomed above him, casting a checkered pattern of light on the cavern floor. The only thing visible past the gate was a blinding blue light—the source of the glow in the upper levels.

His father called it Limbo. That was where souls could rest in relative peace until their time came to return to the cycle.

Sans didn’t spend a lot of time in there, but he heard a lot about it from someone who did. The souls inside had created a makeshift community mimicking the small towns of the human world. They continued living their lives as if they’d moved homes, not died.

He looked up at the gleaming bars backlit by the blinding light, shrugged, and kept walking. The hourglass kept tugging towards Limbo, but Sans continued to walk away. He was well aware that Limbo was the goal for the majority of souls, but that wasn’t their call to make. They had to wait for Judgement.

Or more accurately, they had to wait until he _felt_ like judging them.

Sans had only taken a few steps away from the gates when he heard a deep rumble coming from inside the light. He paused, looking over his shoulder to see some of the bars moving away from the center, booming like thunder as they left a hole open.

A silhouette stepped out of the light and through the hole, pausing to straighten the red scarf around his neck. That spot of color looked warm against his black robes and skeletal features. Without it, he might have looked terrifying, but with it he seemed more like a friendly presence.

“hey, papyrus,” Sans said, waving.

His brother looked up, a smile lighting up his face.

“BROTHER!” Papyrus shouted. He ran towards Sans, the scarf billowing behind him. “YOU’RE BACK EARLY!”

Sans covered the hourglass with the sleeve of his robe. “heh. it felt like it was time for a break,” he said.

Papyrus slowed his run and stopped. He frowned at Sans, crossing his arms. He was almost as tall as their father, so he stood a good head and a half higher than Sans. “HOW MANY SOULS DID YOU BRING BACK?” Papyrus asked.

“enough,” Sans said with a shrug.

“SANS.”

“alright, it was just one,” Sans admitted, turning back around to face the cavern path.

“ONE?!” Papyrus shouted, his voice echoing off the cavern walls. Sans laughed a little under his breath at his brother’s reaction. He could hear Papyrus’s footsteps following him. “SANS, THERE ARE SOULS _WAITING_ FOR YOU,” he continued.

Sans laughed out loud this time as he followed the next curve. “they wait for _you_ , papyrus,” he said. “they’re not too happy when i show up.”

He heard Papyrus sigh before the footsteps picked up their pace. The cavern’s light grew darker, turning into a different shade of blue. They’d reached the next level down, away from Limbo.

Papyrus caught up to him, his scarf brushing Sans’s shoulder. “YOU CAN’T IGNORE YOUR REAPINGS, SANS,” he scolded him. “AREN’T YOU ALWAYS SAYING THAT WE’RE THE ONES THAT BRING PEACE?”

Sans turned away from the view and gave his brother a wider grin than usual. “nah,”  he said, facing the cavern path again. “that’s what _you_ always say.”

Papyrus stopped walking to sigh. “MY POINT IS,” he said, catching up with Sans with a few long strides, “MAYBE IT WOULD BE BETTER FOR YOU TO TAKE A BREAK _AFTER_ YOU REAP THE SOULS THAT AREN’T COMING ON THEIR OWN.”

This time, Sans stopped in his tracks. Papyrus took a few more steps before noticing, whirling around when he saw that he’d left Sans behind. His face dropped in confusion. “WHAT?” he asked.

“pap,” Sans started, “if i went and reaped all the souls on my list right now, you would never see me again.” He shook his head and walked past Papyrus. “you’re asking me to work myself down to the _bone_.”

“WE _ARE_ BONES,” Papyrus said, frowning at the joke. “AND THAT…STAR STUFF TOO.”

Sans held up a finger. “black hole,” he corrected.

“THAT’S WHAT I SAID,” Papyrus answered. “STAR STUFF.”

Sans laughed.

“AND YOU _DO_ SAY THAT A LOT,” Papyrus continued. “ABOUT THE SOULS FINDING PEACE.”

Sans didn’t answer, placing a hand on the hourglass. He could feel the energy of the soul inside still straining to get closer to Limbo. The human’s face as she begged him to not reap her child was still fresh in his mind. Sans stared at the cavern wall. Within a few steps, the rock ended, leaving an empty space. Through it, Sans could look out and see the next two levels of the spiral below them, glowing green and purple. The soft glow of souls lit their way now, a stream falling like a waterfall down to the levels below through the middle of the spiral. If Sans leaned out, he could even look down to the center of the Underworld, winding it’s way down into the soft red glow at the core of the earth.

Sans looked back at Papyrus, smiling. “so how’s limbo doing?” he asked.

Papyrus frowned back at him. “DON’T CHANGE THE SUBJECT,” he said.

“no, really, i like hearing about it,” Sans said, nudging him with his elbow. “any good stories today?”

“WELL…” Papyrus started to smile. “THERE IS ONE OLD LADY… WELL, ‘OLD’ IN THE SENSE THAT SHE USED UP HER FULL TIME, BUT—” He paused as they rounded the next corner on the spiral. The ambient blue light picked up a hint of green. “SHE HAD A LOT OF STORIES ABOUT WHAT IT WAS LIKE WHERE SHE GREW UP. I REALLY LIKED THE ONE ABOUT THIS FESTIVAL THAT THEY USED TO HAVE.”

“huh. what was it about?” Sans asked.

“IT WAS A SPRING FESTIVAL TO HONOR THE GODDESS OF LIFE,” Papyrus said, smiling.

Sans almost tripped over the edge of his robes. Papyrus kept talking.

“SHE SAID THAT THERE WAS A LOT OF DANCING AND MUSIC,” Papyrus said, smiling a little. “AND THAT THE CHILDREN WOULD GATHER GOLDEN FLOWERS TO PUT ON HER SHRINE.”

“hmm,” Sans said. He’d caught glimpses of that kind of thing in villages before, but when he showed up they tended to get cut short. “so when did it stop?” he asked.

“HMM?”

“you said they used to have it,” Sans said, stepping across the line where the blue light changed to a solid green. “why did they stop?” He looked back at Papyrus with a grin. “something _kill_ it off?”

Papyrus rolled his eyes. “NO, IT WAS SOMETHING ABOUT A BAD HARVEST,” he said, shaking his head. “BUT SHE DIDN’T SEEM TO WANT TO TALK ABOUT THAT, SO I DIDN’T ASK.”

“heh,” Sans said, pulling his hood back up. “figures.”

“WHAT’S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?” Papyrus said. “AND I CAN’T SEE YOU WHEN YOU DO THAT.” He tugged Sans’s hood back down.

Sans looked up at Papyrus without moving his skull. “humans are quick to stop believing when it doesn’t benefit them,” he said. “so it only makes sense that they’d turn on a goddess who ignores them.” He pulled his hood back up once more and continued walking.

“YOU REALLY DO DISLIKE HER, DON’T YOU?” Papyrus asked behind him.

Sans shrugged. “our job would be easier without her,” he said, grinning. “then I’d get to go on break for eternity.”

Papyrus groaned. “YOU ARE UNBELIEVABLE,” he said. “DON’T LET DAD HEAR YOU TALK ABOUT THE CYCLE LIKE THAT.”

“i don’t have a problem with the cycle,” Sans said. “i have a problem with having a goddess of life who never shows up to take responsibility for her magic.”

For a moment, the only sound was the soft movement of air as the waterfall of souls moved past them.

“AS LONG AS WE KEEP UP OUR END OF THE CYCLE, IT SHOULD BE FINE,” Papyrus said. “THAT’S WHAT DAD ALWAYS TELLS US.”

“yeah, yeah, hard work, rules to follow, keep the cycle going, and so on,” Sans winked up at his brother. “i’m just gonna bring this soul down below to be judged and then take a rest for a while.”

Sans kept walking, the light shifting again into a deeper green. He expected to hear another sight from Papyrus as he walked away, but there was no response. Sans stopped, looking over his shoulder at him. He was staring at the ground.

“papyrus?” Sans asked.

“HMM?” Papyrus said, looking up. For a moment, his gaze seemed like it was looking at something far away. Then he blinked and shook his head. “AH, I APOLOGIZE, BROTHER. OUR CONVERSATION REMINDED ME OF SOMETHING.”

“like what?” Sans asked. He turned back around to face him.

Papyrus tapped his fingers together, looking away again. “THERE’S SOMETHING I NEED TO ASK YOU ABOUT,” he said.

Sans hadn’t seen him this nervous in a while. “did something happen to the soul streams?” he asked.

“NO, NO,” Papyrus said, waving his hands in front of him. “IT’S NOT THAT… IT’S MORE LIKE… SOMETHING I FELT.”

“gotta be clearer than that, bro,” Sans said. “but we can take care of whatever’s worrying you.”

“THAT’S THE PROBLEM,” Papyrus said, shaking his skull. “I…DON’T KNOW HOW TO EXPLAIN IT.” He paused. Sans waited as Papyrus re-adjusted his scarf around his neck. “IT WAS LIKE…” he started again, “AS IF…SOMETHING WAS MOVING _OUTSIDE_ OF THE CYCLE.”

Sans squinted at him in confusion. “i’m still not following you, pap,” he said.

Papyrus opened his mouth to say something else, but the sound of footsteps coming from behind them cut him off. The two turned to look at the path behind them—visitors to the Underworld wasn’t a normal occasion. The murmur of voices grew along with the footsteps until two shadows came into view.

“—Probably notice we’re here s-sooner or later,” a nervous voice said, tripping over their words. “Couldn’t we have just s-sent a message through Gaster?”

“But all you want is to check in on them really quick, right?” a second voice said, much more confident and forceful than the first. “We can do that with or without them, no big—”

A figure turned the corner, scaly skin glowing blue-green under the light of the current level. A long spear was slung over one shoulder, the weapon pulsing with its own bright white light that shone in a circle around its owner. They turned their face towards Sans and Papyrus, the light reflecting off the side of their eyepatch before her face broke into a toothy grin. “Well, hey!” she said. “Looks like what the humans say about summoning Death when you talk about them is accurate.”

“UNDYNE!” Papyrus shouted, running up to her. “IT’S BEEN FAR TOO LONG!”

The glowing spear disappeared from her hand the moment before Papyrus tackled her with a hug. Undyne ducked her head away before the side of Papyrus’s skull could touch her cheek. “Watch those hands there, buddy,” Undyne laughed, slapping Papyrus on the back a few times before letting him go. “Don’t want you to drain all the power out of me.”

“I’M SORRY,” Papyrus said, pulling back. “IT’S JUST BEEN SO LONG SINCE I’VE SEEN YOU!”

“Don’t worry about it,” Undyne said, her glowing spear re-appearing in her hand. She smiled back at him. “It’s good to see you too. Sorry that I didn’t call ahead with your old man… Someone asked me a favor and I thought I could take care of it on my own.”

Sans waved at her. “hey undyne,” he said.

She glanced over at him, smiled, and returned the wave. “Hey, Sans,” she said.

“YOU SHOULD NOT DO THAT, UNDYNE!” Papyrus said, but he wasn’t using the same tone as when he was chiding Sans. He was still smiling. “YOU’VE ONLY BEEN TO THE MAIN PART OF THE SPIRAL… YOU COULD GET LOST!”

“Can’t be that bad,” Undyne shrugged.

Papyrus seemed to puff up with pride. “THEN I SEE THAT YOU DID NOT ENCOUNTER ANY OF MY PUZZLES ON THE WAY DOWN HERE!” he said. “YOU ARE VERY LUCKY INDEED!”

“the only ones meant to be down here are the souls waiting to go back into the cycle and us,” Sans said. “otherwise, things might _spiral_ out of control.”

Papyrus groaned at the joke. In the same moment, a shadow shifted behind Undyne. Sans caught a glimpse of something tugging at her robes.

“I MAKE THE PUZZLES DESIGNED TO KEEP THE TRICKIER SOULS IN THEIR PLACE,” Papyrus said. “BUT EVEN THOUGH YOU WOULDN’T GET HURT, I’D HATE FOR YOU TO GET LOST.”

Papyrus turned to Sans. “MAYBE WE SHOULD PUT UP SIGNS!” he suggested.

“kinda defeats the point, bro,” Sans said, looking away from the shadow. “the souls would follow them.”

“MAYBE I COULD JUST DIRECT THEM TO THE PUZZLES INSTEAD,” Papyrus continued, putting a hand to his chin. “THAT WAY VISITING GODS WILL STILL KNOW THAT THEY’RE GOING IN THE RIGHT—”

The shadow shifted again, and now Sans could make out its outline.

“hate to interrupt,” Sans said, “but undyne said something about a favor?”

“Oh, yeah, that’s right!” Undyne said, balancing her spear across the back of her shoulders with one arm. She turned around, letting the light coming off her weapon fall behind her.

“See, Alph?” she said. “I told you that they wouldn’t mind.”

Biting her lip, the Goddess of Wisdom slowly walked into the light, the reflection shining off her glasses. She was twisting her hands in front of her, and her tail moved from side to side across the ground at the same pace. “B-but you haven’t even told them what it is yet,” she whispered, glancing between Undyne and the Reapers.

Undyne shrugged again. “Well, it’s better if you say that part, right?” she said.

Alphys looked like she was about to shrink into herself, pulling her arms and shoulders closer into her body. The white light contrasted with the green on her yellow scales, making her look like she had some kind of illness.

“i think i have a guess,” Sans said. Alphys jumped a little at his voice. “you want to see the souls you picked out, right?”

“I…yeah,” Alphys admitted, tracing a circle in the floor with her foot.

“THEN WHY ARE YOU HERE?” Papyrus asked, tilting his skull to one side. “DID THEY PASS ON WITHOUT US NOTICING?” He turned to Sans. “DID YOU REAP A SOUL THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE RAISED UP?”

Sans held up his hands. “bro, i may not pay close attention to souls, but i don’t mess up my job,” he said.

“THEN…” Papyrus said, turning back to Alphys, “CAN’T YOU VISIT THOSE SOULS YOURSELF ON THE SURFACE?”

Alphys shook her head, beginning to twist her hands again. “N-No, I…want to leave them alone,” she said, looking at the ground. “They k-know they’ve been picked, but I want them to have n-normal lives until the t-time comes.”

“But she still wants to know how they’re getting along,” Undyne said, shifting her weight to her other leg. “And this is the only place where we can get a look at souls without seeing them face-to-face.”

Alphys nodded. “Y-yeah!” she said. “But I didn’t want to bother you—”

She threw a quick glance towards Sans, and looked away in the same moment.

Yep, he’d guessed right.

“if that’s all, then we can take you,” Sans said, walking towards them.

Alphys shrunk back a little but then straightened up, looking at him with wider eyes. “You will?” she asked.

“sure,” Sans shrugged. “but, uh, you guys were going the wrong way. the spiral only goes down.” He pointed a finger towards the cave floor and then lifted it until he pointed towards the ceiling. “you want to go up to the top.”

Alphys wrinkled her snout in confusion. “Top?” she asked, glancing at Undyne. She only shook her head in response.

“OH, YOU’RE IN FOR A TREAT!” Papyrus said, clapping his hands together. “IT’S QUITE BEAUTIFUL! ONLY OUR FATHER HAS SEEN IT BESIDES US.”

“Really?” Alphys said, turning her head towards Undyne again for confirmation.

The Goddess of War grinned back at her. “I knew that they could see them here, but I haven’t tried it myself,” Undyne said. “Not much point when I pick souls right off the battlefield.”

Sans’s eye sockets went dark. He turned back up towards the pathway without looking at Undyne or Papyrus. “this way,” he said, walking past Alphys.

He heard her suck in her breath to say something, but she turned away again a moment later.

“Um, so you’re the younger Death, right? I d-don’t think we’ve met before,” Alphys said behind him. “I’m the G-Goddess of Wisdom, but the other deities call me Alphys. It’s n-nice to meet you.”

“IT IS NICE TO MEET YOU AS WELL, GODDESS! YOU CAN CALL ME PAPYRUS!” his brother’s cheerful voice echoed off the wall.

“Ok… Papyrus,” Alphys said, sounding a little less tense. “You…said something about puzzles earlier? Can I ask what kind they are?”

Even without looking, Sans could picture Papyrus’s face lighting up at the question.

“OH? ARE YOU A PUZZLE ENTHUSIAST AS WELL?” Papyrus asked.

“W-well, I do like logic puzzles—” Alphys said.

Undyne’s glowing spear came into view on Sans’s left side, distracting him from his eavesdropping.

“Hey,” Undyne said. Her voice was terse and quiet underneath the excited echoes of Papyrus explaining one of his pitfall puzzles. “Thanks for taking her. To see them, I mean.”

Sans turned his skull a fraction of an inch, glancing up at Undyne from underneath the fringe of his hood. “no big deal,” he said, looking back at the path. “guess i really did scare her last time, huh?” Sans said.

“See? It doesn’t kill you to play nice with one of the few goddesses that actually deal with you,” Undyne said.

“that would be kinda hard, actually,” Sans said, “since i’m already death.”

Undyne groaned. “You know what I mean,” she said.

“and i know you’re not only here because of alphys,” Sans said. “her ‘favor’ was to tag along, right? so why were you coming down to our spot in the first place?”

Undyne didn’t answer for a moment. “You know, I forget how perceptive you are since you’re joking all the time,” she said.

“hey, gotta find the fun in things or else your job will kill you slowly,” Sans said with a wink.

He turned a little on the path and stopped in front of a dark cleft in the rock wall. It looked like a mere shadow unless someone approached it from the right angle, and even then it was hard to spot thanks to how dark it was. Undyne lifted her spear, shining it into the darkness, but the only thing the light illuminated—aside from swirling dust motes—was the rock floor.

Sans walked into the darkness without hesitation, Undyne following behind after a moment. Sans could still hear Papyrus’s and Alphys’s voices, but they were muted as soon as they stepped onto the new path. The floor underneath their feet tilted upwards bit by bit, heading towards the top of the Spiral.

“Does it really have to be this dark?” Undyne asked.

Sans shrugged. “dad built it that way,” he said. “even without pap’s puzzles, it’s not easy to get around here unless you’re one of us.”

“You take this path all the time?” Undyne asked. The light from the spear deepened the shadows on her face as she wrinkled her nose.

“nah, i just teleport,” Sans said.

“Then why are we walking?” Undyne demanded.

“like i said, the only easy way around here is if you’re one of us,” Sans said. “or if you're _with_ one of us.”

Sans glanced up at Undyne and saw her frowning at the surrounding darkness. “think of it like this,” he continued. “would you rather walk through all this darkness on your own?”

“Are you saying I’m a coward?” Undyne shot back at him.

“nope,” Sans said, taking another slight turn on the path. “it just seems like you think there’s only one path here. like you’ve got a _one-track mind_ or something.”

Undyne grumbled something that Sans couldn’t catch. The slope beneath their feet became a little steeper.

“so when are you gonna tell me the reason you came down here?” Sans asked.

Undyne stopped, lifting the spear off her shoulder and resting its end on the ground. She frowned a little, her gaze turning serious. “You already know what I’m gonna say, right?” she said.

The glow from her spear was almost blinding surrounded by all the darkness, but he could still make out Papyrus and Alphys at the outskirts of the ring of light behind them. Papyrus was still gesturing in midair, so it was likely that he wouldn’t hear them. Sans looked away from him and turned back to Undyne.

“there’s going to be a war,” he said. It was a statement, not a question.

Undyne nodded to confirm anyway, her mouth settling into a hard line. “Things are getting tense between two of the smaller human nations,” she said. “I’ve gotten a lot of prayers for protection from one of them. Apparently part of the problem is that the other nation is a bunch of blasphemers.” Undyne shrugged. “Or at least, I haven’t gotten many prayers from them. I’ve got some of my demigods to look into it and—”

“i still think that you should call them demidogs,” Sans chimed in, grinning.

Undyne glared at him. “ _And_ a lot of temples are abandoned over there,” she continued, turning her eyes back towards the path. “Apparently a lot of tainted souls are wandering around too.”

“i thought that you didn’t do religious wars,” Sans said, tilting his skull up at her.

“I don’t,” Undyne said. “But all those distorted colors might be what’s causing things to get this bad.” She picked up her spear and started up the slope again. “I mean, you know firsthand how strange humans start to act once their soul turns a different color,” she continued.

“there’s a turn right there,” Sans said.

Undyne paused in her climb, looking back over her shoulder at Sans. She pointed with her thumb to the right, and Sans nodded. Undyne shifted to the other side of the path, allowing Sans to walk next to her again.

“Anyway,” Undyne started again, “I don’t know what kind of battle this will be or even if it _will_ be a war, but I wanted to give you a fair warning before it happens.”

“heh,” Sans laughed. “thanks for thinking of me.” He stretched his arms in front of them as they walked, some of the joints popping. “welp, what’s a war without death?” he said.

“DID SOMEONE SAY WAR?”

Papyrus’s voice came from right above Sans’s head. Sans grabbed the edge of his hood and pulled it further over his skull. “nope,” he said.

“I KNOW I HEARD SOMEONE SAY WAR,” Papyrus continued. He grabbed Sans’s shoulder, leaning forward between the two of them. “ARE YOU TAKING SANS WITH YOU TO THE BATTLEFIELD AGAIN?”

Undyne shifted her spear on her shoulder, not looking straight at Papyrus. “Nothing’s decided yet,” she said.

Papyrus jumped in front of them on the path. “THEN TAKE ME WITH YOU THIS TIME!” he said, smiling. “SANS ALWAYS COMPLAINS ABOUT IT WHEN HE GETS BACK ANYWAY.”

They both stopped. Papyrus’s optimistic face waited for an answer. Sans could feel Undyne staring at him, but he didn’t look at her.

“pap, if you go, then who’s going to watch the souls?” Sans asked.

Papyrus opened his mouth, closed it, and then started again. “WHY AM I ALWAYS THE ONE WATCHING THE SOULS ANYWAY?” he asked.

“because you’re good at it, bro,” Sans said, smiling. “you’re better with the kids and the old ladies than i could ever be.” He shrugged. “besides…battlefields aren’t as fun as you think they are.”

Papyrus crossed his arms. “I AM A DEATH GOD AS MUCH AS YOU ARE, SANS,” he said. “I DON’T NEED YOU TO CODDLE ME.”

“i’m not,” Sans said, climbing past him. He patted his brother on the shoulder as he went by. “just trust me on this one, bro.”

Papyrus pouted and turned to Undyne instead. “I’VE MET SO MANY SOULS IN LIMBO WHO SPEAK OF FIGHTING IN THE NAME OF JUSTICE,” he said. “IT SOUNDS LIKE A TRULY HONORABLE DEATH! I ONLY WISH I COULD SEE IT IN PERSON.”

Undyne laughed, shifting her spear’s weight to her other shoulder. “I wish that were always true,” she said, “but I so always stand on the side that fights with honor.” Undyne grinned, her teeth glinting in the glow from her spear. “Hey, Sans,” she shouted after him, “Maybe he _should_ come next time.”

Sans paused, looking back at them. Papyrus was smiling up at him, holding on to the edge of his red scarf. The silence stretched on.

“Um…”

They all turned to look at Alphys, causing her face to turn pale. She took a few steps backwards. “I-I’m sorry, but…” she said, looking at the ground again. “how much longer until we reach the top?” she asked.

“we’re almost there,” Sans said, turning back around. He heard Papyrus sigh but didn’t acknowledge it.

A different glow appeared ahead of them, growing with every step that they took. It pulsed blue—different than the blue of Limbo or the soul that Sans carried, and carried hints of green and purple. As they drew closer, slight bits of orange began to appear in the light as well, along with traces of yellow. The path beneath them leveled out, and the end appeared—

“Wow,” Alphys breathed.

The top of the Spiral stretched on for miles, creating its own horizon. The surface was flat and as dark as the pathway they’d just left, but its surface was covered in streams of glowing, moving light. The colors appeared to drip from the ceiling high above like rain, splitting and mixing into the nearby streams as they fell. Some were a single color, contributing the yellow and the green to the glow they’d seen from the entrance, while others mixed, like the blues. The streams moved at different rates, some large, others just a tiny trickle, but they all moved towards the hole in the middle of the Spiral, where the streams dropped down into the center.

Sans and Papyrus waited just outside the entrance while Alphys and Undyne finished looking around.

Undyne whistled. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” she said, taking a few steps forward.

Papyrus rushed forward, waving his hands in the air just before Undyne stepped into one of the green streams. “PLEASE WATCH WHERE YOU WALK!” he said. “YOU COULD DISRUPT THE SOULS.”

“Souls?” Undyne asked, her foot hanging in midair. She looked down at the stream below her heel. “ _Woah_. It’s made out of human souls!” she shouted.

Alphys rushed up next to Undyne, crouching next to the stream and readjusting her glasses. “They’re moving into the Underworld all on their own,” she said. She looked up at Papyrus. “B-But I thought that the two of you needed to go reap s-souls before they were brought down here.”

Papyrus grinned, putting his hands on his hips. “THAT IS TRUE TO AN EXTENT,” he started. “BUT WE ONLY NEED TO REAP THE SOULS THAT STILL CLING ON TO LIFE FOR ONE REASON OR ANOTHER…USUALLY BECAUSE OF A CORRUPTION IN THEIR COLOR.” He swept his arms wide. “BUT MOST HUMANS USE UP THEIR FULL TIME WITH FEW REGRETS, AND THEIR SOULS COME HERE ON THEIR OWN.”

“Fascinating,” Alphys said, standing up and looking around at the other nearby streams. “How d-do they know which stream to go to?”

“LIKE ATTRACTS LIKE!” Papyrus said. “I TRIED MAKING ONE BIG STREAM ONCE, BUT THEY ALWAYS SPLIT UP SO THAT THEY COULD GO WITH THEIR FRIENDS, SO I STOPPED TRYING TO MAKE THEM ALL GET ALONG. NOW THERE’S A PLACE FOR ALL OF THEM TO GO!”

“You made these?” Undyne asked, pointing at the stream. She still hadn’t put her foot down.

“WELL, I REDIRECTED THEM,” Papyrus said, rubbing the back of his skull in a bashful way. “AND I MAKE SURE THAT THEY DON’T LOOP BACK ON THEMSELVES. AND I ALSO SET THEM TO MOVE AT THE SAME PACE SO THAT THE OTHER STREAMS DON’T GET JEALOUS. AMONG OTHER THINGS, I SUPPOSE.”

Undyne’s face lit up with a smile. “Papyrus, that’s incredible!” she said.

“WELL, WHAT KIND OF REAPER WOULD I BE IF I COULDN’T HANDLE A FEW SOULS?” Papyrus said, returning her smile.

“you’d be like me,” Sans said, pushing off from the ground to float in midair. “more than one or two just wears me out.”

“STOP BEING RIDICULOUS, SANS,” Papyrus said. “THAT’S ONLY BECAUSE YOU’RE LAZY.”

Sans shrugged, making a slow flip in midair. “i prefer to think of it as being aware of my limits,” he said.

Alphys straightened up from where she’d crouched next to a yellow stream and readjusted her glasses again. “B-But if these are all souls who have already passed, then how can I see the ones that I…?” She trailed off, looking up at Sans.

“same thing i said before,” Sans said. He pointed above his head. “look up.”

Alphys tilted her head back, confused. Sans chuckled to himself when he saw her jaw drop.

Above them, moving across the ceiling where the souls trickled down, were an uncountable number of lights. They twinkled like the stars on the surface, but with each passing moment they shifted and overlapped each other. If someone looked carefully, they could see that each one had it’s own distinct color—the colors shared by souls.

Alphys squinted. “Are they…glittering?” she asked.

Sans nodded. “ever wonder where gaster put the hourglasses?” he said.

“Oh!” Alphys said, her eyes going wide with understanding. “Then—these are all the human’s souls?”

Sans shook his head. “nah, those stay in their bodies,” he said. “but the hourglasses reflect their colors down here through the chains. they follow the humans everywhere they go on the surface. it makes it easy to track the ones who don’t want to go just yet.”

“They look like stars,” Alphys said, turning in place while she continued to look up. “There’s so many of them…” She squinted. “H-How can I spot the ones that I’m looking for?”

Sans floated above Alphys. “the souls picked out by the deities shine a bit brighter than the rest,” he said, looking up as well. “and they glow with the color of the deity who chose them. so if you want to see them, all you need to do is walk around and look.”

Alphys nodded, keeping her head tilted upwards as she took a step forward—

“BUT PLEASE WATCH THE SOUL STREAMS!” Papyrus said, causing Alphys to jump. “IT CAN BE HARMFUL TO THE SOULS IF THEY’RE PUSHED OUT OF THEM.”

“O-ok!” Alphys said, taking a few steps back from the nearest stream. “I-I’ll be c-careful.”

Undyne turned her eyes on Alphys as she took a wide step over one of the smaller streams. The glowing spear vanished from Undyne’s hand as walked up behind Alphys, placing her hands underneath the other’s arms and lifted her up into the air.

“Ah! W-What are you—” Alphys cried out in surprise, but stopped when Undyne placed her on top of her shoulders. Undyne wrapped her hands around Alphys’s ankles, holding her in place as she caught her balance on her new, higher perch.

“I’ll worry about stepping on souls,” Undyne said. “You go spot your future demigods.”

Alphys blushed, her hands held out to the sides like she was walking over a rickety bridge. “Thanks, U-Undyne,” she stuttered out, turning her face back up towards the sky of far-away hourglasses.

The group continued across the top of the Spiral in silence for a few minutes. Papyrus walked and hopped between the many soul streams without so much as a glance at his feet while Undyne picked her way through, biting her lip. Alphys’s hands ended up resting in Undyne’s hair as she continued to look upwards. Sans floated above them all, sometimes dipping or turning, but still following the general direction of the group.

Papyrus tugged his brother’s sleeve as he floated past him. “THE SOULS MUST FEEL HONORED TO BE CHOSEN BY THE GODDESS OF WISDOM,” he said.

Sans completed another slow flip in midair that knocked back his hood. “yep,” he said.

“THE SOULS IN LIMBO ALWAYS TALK ABOUT HOW GRATEFUL THEY ARE TO THE GODS FOR ONE REASON OR ANOTHER,” Papyrus said, looking over at Undyne and Alphys. “BEING CHOSEN MUST BE INCREDIBLE.”

“yep…incredible,” Sans echoed.

Papyrus looked back at him with a frown. “THAT DIDN’T SOUND LIKE YOU AGREE,” he said.

“heh,” Sans laughed. “can’t hide anything from you, huh bro?” He turned over and laced his fingers behind his skull, looking up at the hourglasses as he floated.

“SO? WHAT’S THE PROBLEM WITH IT?” Papyrus asked.

“it just seems like…” Sans started, lifting a hand and then trailing off. “nah, it doesn’t _seem_ like anything. the rules are stacked in favor of the gods.”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN?” Papyrus asked.

“the gods get to pick out any soul they want, and all of a sudden, the cycle doesn’t apply to those souls anymore,” Sans said.

“I DON’T SEE THE PROBLEM WITH THAT,” Papyrus said. “THEY’RE JOINING THE DEITIES. AND BESIDES, DOESN’T THAT MEAN LESS JUDGEMENT WORK FOR YOU?”

Sans turned, starting to float perpendicular to the ground again. “i guess i’m just curious about what their corruption would look like,” he said. “since it always gets drowned out by the light of the deities.”

“SANS!” Papyrus said in a yelling whisper, “DON’T IMPLY THAT FUTURE DEMIGODS ARE CORRUPTED HUMANS! IT’S RUDE!”

“just calling it like i see it,” Sans shrugged. “those humans have a free pass right now. and whenever a human feels like they don’t have to deal with consequences, things get ugly.”

Papyrus sighed. “I REALLY WISH THAT YOU WOULD MAKE UP YOUR MIND ABOUT WHETHER YOU WANT TO DO YOUR JOB OR NOT,” he said.

“Ah!” Alphys suddenly pointed, a smile growing on her face. She bounced on Undyne’s shoulders. “T-There! There they are!”

“Where?” Undyne asked, looking up. “And you’re pulling my hair, Alph—”

“Oh!” Alphys unclenched her fist, letting go of a handful of red hair. “S-Sorry!”

“It’s okay,” Undyne said, still trying to look up without dropping Alphys. “But where are they?”

“R-Right above us!” Alphys said, pointing again.

Far above her finger, surrounded by a soft glowing rainbow of hourglasses, were two bright yellow lights. Their shine was so intense that the group could see the outline of their hourglasses lit from within. They looked like tiny suns, outshining the other lights that surrounded them.

“seems like they’re in one of the major human cities,” Sans commented.

Alphys sighed, putting a hand to her chest. There was a small smile on her face. “Right where I saw them last,” she said. “I guess things worked out there after all.” She looked at

Sans. “Is…t-there a way to see how their health is?” she asked. “Like, i-if one of them is s-sick or s-something like that.”

Sans grinned at her. “why?” he asked. “getting impatient?”

“N-No!” Alphys said, shaking her head so hard that her glasses slipped down her snout. “I just…wanted to k-know how they are.”

Sans stared back at her, but she wouldn’t meet his gaze. “if that was all, then you wouldn’t have come down here,” he said. “and in any case…we don’t take souls before their time. not even chosen ones.”

Alphys whispered something under her breath and turned away.

“Ignore him, Alph,” Undyne said, frowning at Sans. “He’s just in a bad mood since I told him he’ll probably have some extra work soon.”

Sans said nothing and floated back towards Papyrus. His brother glanced between the two of them with increasing concern. “THERE’S NO NEED TO ARGUE!” he said. “IN FACT, WHY DON’T WE TAKE THE GODDESS UP TO LOOK AT THE CONDITION OF THE HOURGLASSES HERSELF? THAT SHOULDN’T CAUSE ANY—”

In the same moment that Papyrus cut himself off, Sans felt it. It was distant, but impossible to ignore.

 _Something_ was twisting just outside the cycle.

Papyrus was right. There was no way to describe it outside of that. The cycle was embedded into their existence, and even the concept that something existed outside of it felt _wrong._ Sans started to look towards Papyrus—

_CRASH_

The four of them turned around at once. Alphys grabbed onto Undyne’s head again to keep herself from falling off at the sudden movement. “W-what was that?” she asked.

Sans flew past Papyrus, black tendrils from his robe trailing behind him. That sound only meant one thing—

He looked to the ground as he flew, passing over the unbroken streams with increasing speed until he saw it—a broken blue stream trying to reform on its own. Souls lay on the ground nearby or floated in midair, their colors flickering as the stream extended itself like a net, moving around the source of its disturbance and trying to catch the lost souls in its tendrils.

Sans slowed down, lowering himself to the ground nearby. He couldn’t feel that _thing_ anymore, but the two events were too close together to be a coincidence. Sans took a few steps towards the broken stream. Through the glowing blue threads left hanging in midair from the point of impact, he could see what had happened. Something had fallen into the stream’s center and burst, throwing the surrounding souls out of alignment. He walked a little closer, peeking through the expanding threads of the stream’s net to confirm what he already knew.

Ten shattered hourglasses lay on the ground in the middle of the stream.

The fractured pieces of glass reflected the light from the blue souls surrounding them, but their shine had been lost. They lay in circles around the bent golden metal that used to hold the hourglasses together, sticking out like thorns in the heaps of white sand that had spilled across the ground. The chains were still attached to the metal, but had lost their shine as well. They hung limply, still leading up towards the ceiling, but looking like someone had cut the tension that had kept them suspended. Against the light of the stream, the broken hourglasses looked like a shadowed wreck.

There was no hint of the color that used to be reflected inside them.

Sans felt his jaw tighten as he looked out over the spilled sand. “a waste,” he said to himself.

“OH NO! NO NO NO, PLEASE COME BACK!”

Sans didn’t move as Papyrus rushed past him, cupping a flickering soul on the ground in his hands. “I CAN FIX THIS! JUST GIVE ME A MOMENT!” he said, placing the soul back into the unbroken part of the stream and rushing towards the next stranded one.

“hey, bro,” Sans said, not looking away from the hourglasses, “can you move the stream away from all this trash?”

Papyrus snapped his head up. “TRASH?” he asked. “WHAT DO YOU—OH.” He dropped the soul he was holding into the stream and walked over to Sans. “IT SHOULD ONLY TAKE A FEW SECONDS… BUT WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?”

“my job,” Sans shrugged, still not looking at Papyrus. He readjusted his hood with one hand, one of his scythes appearing in the other. “heh. of course this happens right before I take my break,” he said.

“SANS, I’LL GO AFTER I MOVE THE STREAM,” Papyrus said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “YOU SHOULD—”

Sans pushed his brother’s hand away. “no,” he said. “you need to make sure the souls are okay.”

The edges of Papyrus’s eyesockets turned down in concern. “BUT—” he started, but Sans shook his skull.

“i’ve never seen this many fall at once,” he said. “there might be more. i need you to watch for them, ok?”

Papyrus looked away, but he nodded all the same.

He lifted his other hand, making a circular motion with his fingers. At first, nothing happened, but as Papyrus continued the motion the threads coming off the stream started to head towards him like they were being guided by a gentle wind. More and more threads joined them, growing in size until the stream had lifted itself off the ground, away from the broken hourglasses, to hover above Sans and Papyrus’s heads.

Sans patted Papyrus on the arm and stepped out from under the stream, heading for the hourglasses. He reached out, grabbing one of the chains in a loose grip. He looked up towards the ceiling and started to float up towards it, the chain he’d chosen as a guide to his destination rattling behind him.

Undyne ran up to Papyrus, still carrying Alphys on her shoulders. “Where’s he going?” she asked, squinting upwards as Sans disappeared into the darkness between them and the soul hourglasses moving along the ceiling.

Papyrus didn’t answer, continuing to move his hand until the stream settled itself on the ground behind the goddesses. Undyne dropped down to her knees so that Alphys could slide down off her back. “Thanks,” she whispered to Undyne.

Undyne stood up, her spear re-materializing in her hand. She frowned when she saw the hourglasses. “Talk to me, Papyrus. Did he go after whoever broke those?” she asked, pointing with the spear.

Papyrus was still gathering souls off the ground. “I SUPPOSE THAT’S ONE WAY TO SAY IT,” he said.

“I…don’t understand,” Alphys said, twisting her hands in front of her again. “W-What happened? They’re n-not supposed to fall, right?”

Papyrus stood up, a blue soul cupped in his hands. Its glow grew steadier by the moment, shining between the gaps in his finger bones. “NO,” he said, sadness seeping into his voice the same way the light went through his hands. “THEY’RE NOT.”

Undyne leaned over the hourglasses. “That’s a lot of sand,” she commented.

Papyrus’s hands shuddered, and he turned away, placing the soul back into the stream. He paused as the soul floated away. “SOMETIMES…HUMANS STOP THEIR TIME ALL ON THEIR OWN,” he said.

Alphys gasped, her hands flying over her mouth. Undyne straightened up, shaking her head.

Papyrus continued to stare at the stream. “SANS MAY LOVE TO WASTE TIME,” he continued. “BUT HE HATES TO SEE OTHERS GIVE UP THEIRS.”

“This many…” Undyne muttered. “That’s pretty messed up.”

“I’M SORRY, BUT YOU BOTH SHOULD GO,” Papyrus said. “I…NEED TO LISTEN IN CASE ANY MORE ARE ABOUT TO FALL.”

Undyne nodded. “C’mon, Alph,” she said. “We’ve bugged these two enough for one day.”

Alphys looked between Papyrus and Undyne, biting her lip. “T-Thank you!” she stuttered out to Papyrus’s back. “And…sorry.”

Papyrus turned a little, giving a sad smile to Alphys over his shoulder. “YOU HAVE NOTHING TO APOLOGIZE FOR,” he said. “I’M GLAD YOU GOT TO SEE YOUR SOULS.”

Alphys smiled awkwardly back as Undyne walked up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder. “Thanks, Papyrus,” she said. “I’ll try to visit again soon.”

Papyrus waved at the two of them as the light from Undyne’s spear grew, enclosing the goddesses in a sphere of light that then vanished as if they’d never been there at all.

His hand dropped back down against his robes. The top of the Spiral was quiet now, with only the dull roar from the streams surrounding him for company. Papyrus took a few steps forward, sitting down next to the hourglasses. He looked up.

All he could do right now was listen and wait.


	3. Knock Knock

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans let his scythes vanish, holding up his palms. “hey, don’t get all _fired_ up,” he said. “i did knock.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again! Sorry for the long wait--I had some computer trouble at the beginning of this month, so this chapter was delayed by a lot more than I wanted it to be. Now that I've got everything up and running again, hopefully I'll be able to figure out a concrete update schedule for this fic soon! 
> 
> Also, as the end of the last chapter implied, the first part of this chapter will be dealing with suicide. I wanted to put a warning at the top of this chapter about this since I'm aware that this is a very sensitive issue and that some readers may like a warning before reading. However, I will also say that this will not be a constant topic in this fic. I just needed to establish one more thing about my characterization of Reaper Sans before the story finally moves forward. 
> 
> Thanks again to everyone who's read this so far, and I hope that you enjoy the update!

It wasn’t what Sans had expected.

He’d braced himself for the worst—even by Death’s standards, _ten_ deliberately shattered hourglasses was something unthinkable. He’d expected something gruesome, yet Sans still couldn’t help but feel unsettled the moment he moved up through the ground into the room where the relinquished souls waited.

He stood there for a moment, letting his surroundings sink in. Sans had appeared at the threshold, standing right in the center of the entrance as usual. The room was dark, with only a single torch burning in the back of the room. Its light threw flickering shadows across the rock, catching on the edges of twin statues set against the walls. Their stone faces were blank—not eroded, but never there in the first place. Yellowed rotting cloth covered the statues’ heads, the forgotten veils spreading down their stone arms to end in decaying fragments. The statues’ large hands rested on their knees, palms upward, a bouquet of stone flowers spread across their laps. 

This was an abandoned shrine. 

Sans wondered how Life would react if she knew that one of her old shrines had just become a mass suicide ground.

He took a step into the room, his robes moving across the floor in smoky curls. The torchlight guttered for a moment, creating more shadows. Something dripped from the ceiling—water, perhaps. 

Sans stopped on his second step, taking a quick count. The bad lighting made it look like there were more bodies on the floor than there should be, but the only other light source in the room made it clear that was impossible.

Floating over the bodies, invisible to anyone but a deity, were the abandoned souls. They glowed silently in midair, waiting.

Every last one of them were red.

Sans stepped to the closest one, cupping his hand in the air around it. He gazed at it as the color washed over his face, forcing him to squint his eyes against its intensity. Then Sans saw it—hints of green towards the bottom of the soul. It wasn’t a distorted green, either. 

At some point, this soul’s defining trait had been kindness. 

Sans stepped back, dropping his hand away from the soul. Confusion weighed down his bones. While any human was capable of this, Sans had come to expect it more of yellow and orange souls than any other color. Souls dyed in red were more likely to hurt others than themselves. He glanced again at the other nine souls that hung above the bodies, shedding dull red light across the corpses. Sans had never seen such a bright red before—

His hand tightened on the handle of his scythe. No, that was wrong. He’d seen this kind of red before, but only once.

Sans lifted his scythe, leveling the edge in front of him. It didn’t matter. These souls had given up their original colors to be dyed in the shade of wrath—and then got rid of the remaining time that they had left. They’d decided that they were above the cycle, and thus above judgement, Sans told himself. They’d broken their own hourglasses, so there was no way for them to journey into the Underworld. He summoned his other scythe, extending out the chain that connected the two. 

“welp, joke’s on you guys,” Sans said to the empty space. “you’re being judged anyway.”

The soul closest to the back wall flickered like the torch as if in response. As Sans raised his scythes, the soul’s color began to dim, its edges turning black—

With one wide swing, Sans caught the souls on the edges of the scythe blades, dragging them towards him. Even with their blackened edges, the light was overpowering.

Sans dropped his scythes, hearing the slight rush of air before they dematerialized. He reached out his hands, cupping his palms around the stained green soul like he’d done just a moment before—

—And crushed it between his fingers. 

In the same instant, Sans felt something sharp against his ribs, like something had chipped his bones. The fragments of the soul burned a bright white before they shattered, dropping through the gaps in his fingers like ash before vanishing out of existence. 

Sans didn’t give himself a moment to hesitate. He took the next soul and cracked it against his palm. He set his jaw against the strange sensation that his bones were cracking too. 

Again and again and again he crushed the souls, forcing himself to focus on the red and not the underlying color. 

To leave the cycle was to leave existence. Those were the rules. Sans could almost hear his father’s voice as he echoed them to himself.

Before long, Sans stared down at the last soul. It was the one that had started to turn black before he’d even touched it—although “black” wasn’t the right word to describe this color. It wasn’t a pigment anymore—it looked like it was absorbing the color around it. Only a tiny pinprick of red remained, still burning as if in defiance. 

This was what it looked like when a soul fell out of the cycle—its original nature only took it so far. Sans didn’t know what happened when it went any further, but he didn’t want to find out either.

This was his job. He had to do it to keep the world running the way it was meant to. 

_Doing this for souls that have fallen out of the cycle is mercy towards them_ , his father’s voice said in his head.

Sans grabbed the last soul, hands shaking, and snapped it in half. 

The last bit of red flickered and vanished, the soul disintegrating into thin air.

He dropped his hands to his sides, clenching them into fists to stop them from shuddering. 

They were just humans with finite existences and terrible senses of judgement. He was Death, their judge and their end. This was his place in the cycle. 

But the air in the room felt thicker and darker than before. 

Sans turned back towards the shadowed entrance, the hourglass still attached to his belt swinging heavy against him. Sans placed a hand on its smooth, unbroken top. He’d forgotten that it was there. 

Something wet scraped across the floor behind him.

Sans froze—not from the noise, but because the atmosphere in the abandoned shrine had changed. Now the air itself pulled down on him, like a bad premonition given form. 

This was wrong. Only the shells the humans had given up were left. This kind of atmosphere was only supposed to come from him, not anyone else.

Sans turned around as the sound echoed off the walls again—and summoned one of his scythes into his hand out of reflex.

One of the shells _moved_.

It dragged itself across the stone floor with hooked fingers, creating the wet scraping noise with each inch it gained across the stone floor. Sans watched in revulsion as it drew nearer, not knowing what to make of it—he’d taken all the souls in this room, there was no possible way for what remained to _move_ —when it turned their head up at him and he caught a glimpse of red.

He’d missed one.

Sans could see it now that he knew what he was looking for. This one’s soul was covered in the same darkness that had eaten away at the others, shadowing its glare. It was dyed in red as well, but Sans couldn’t guess what their original color might have been. 

Wrath had intense side-effects.

The red-tainted soul continued dragging themselves across the floor. They started muttering as well. Sans made a mental recount as it drew closer to the edge of his robes. He had shattered all ten souls—he hadn’t counted the hourglasses wrong. 

So what was the extra’s story?

Sans glided across the floor to them, stooping down in the middle of their path. The edge of his cloak skirted the ends of the corrupted soul’s fingers, sending wisps of his cloak across the stone floor like smoke.

“hey,” he said, leveling the scythe at their head. “you don’t look like you’re in the mood for jokes, but…wanna hear one anyway?”

They stopped, tilting their head up at him at an angle a human should not be able to achieve. They grinned, and Sans saw that their eye sockets were as hollow as his. The red light of the distorted soul shined through the holes with a dim glow. 

“Not really,” they said. Their voice had a strange echo to it, like someone else in the room had spoken at the exact same time. The grin grew wider. 

They laughed, the second layer to their voice breaking away from the husk’s chuckle. The echo almost sounded like a child’s laugh.

Sans held out his other hand, and a dented hourglass lifted out of the ground to hover below his palm. He pulled the new hourglass towards him, holding it by the chain between him and the husk. At first glance it looked like all the sand had fallen to the bottom, but when Sans tilted it, he could still see a small stream moving along the side of the glass. 

The glowing holes in the red soul’s head continued to watch him. 

How could something like this still be alive?

“you still have some time left,” Sans said, tapping the glass with a single finger. “but you must be pretty close to breaking if you can see me.”

They laughed again, lower and shorter this time. “Go ahead,” they said. “This one served their purpose.”

Sans put the hourglass down on the floor. “you know, most humans aren’t this calm when they’re staring death in the face,” he said, turning back to meet their empty, glowing gaze. “and that referring to yourself in the third person thing you just pulled is almost as spooky as your alternative eye color.” Sans pressed the blade of the scythe under the distorted soul’s chin. “so before i have to take you a little deeper than six feet under to judge you,” he continued, “how about you save us both the time and your spot in the cycle and explain to me what happened here?”

Their smile looked like it would rip their lips in two. “Mmm. My spot in the cycle,” they said. “How amusing.”

“what?” Sans said, eye sockets narrowing.

“Oh. I thought you understood what was happening here. My apologies,” the echoing voice said. The red light flickered like a flame. “This was just a test. I had a guess about what you would do. But I wanted to be sure.” 

“still not making a lot of sense there, buddy,” Sans said, pushing the scythe a little harder against their neck. “mind filling the friendly neighborhood reaper in?”

Their grin grew too wide, splitting into their cheeks. “You will find out eventually,” the echo said. “However. _This_ test was a complete failure. I will have to think of something better. For next time.”

The red glow began to fade. 

“Goodbye, Death,” the echo said, its volume decreasing as its mocking tone rose. “Perhaps next time you will remember me.”

The red light vanished. Their body crumpled to the floor before Sans could react, chin still hanging off the edge of his scythe. 

A moment later, its back burst open—something dark flew out of it with a sound like flapping wings. A figure encased in shadow shot up towards the ceiling, dragging the heavy atmosphere with it. 

In the same moment, Sans felt it. That strange feeling from just before the hourglasses fell—the sensation of something moving outside the cycle. 

And it was getting away.

Sans jumped up to follow it, knocking the chain from the other hourglass off his lap and onto the stone floor. The noise as the metal hit the ground caused him to turn his head. There was still a slight glow coming from inside.  

He glanced between it and the shadow, but in the amount of time it took him to look the shadow vanished through the cracks in the rock ceiling along with the odd feeling. Sans glared at the point where it disappeared, and ran his hand over his skull. “you’re _killing_ me here,” he muttered.

Sans stooped down to pick up the hourglass once again. Just before his fingers grabbed the chain, he paused, looking at the motionless body once more before turning back to the hourglass. The sand had stopped. 

He grabbed it, wrapping the chain around his fingers. The hourglass dangled from it as he stood up once more. Sans readjusted the grip on his scythe, looking back down at the motionless shell. He raised the blade and then let it fall, right into the center of its back—

—And a black soul rose out of it.

There was no glow, not even a pulse. It looked like the soul had been burned, removing not just the distortions, but any trace of the original color as well. As Sans drew it closer to him with his hand, he could see what looked like cuts and deep slashes, as though something sharp had forced its way out from the inside. 

He placed the soul inside its dented hourglass, frowning at the continued lack of a glow. After a moment’s thought, he tied it on the opposite side of his belt from the blue soul. Just in case. 

He looked up at the ceiling where the shadow had disappeared. It might have moved fast, but it couldn’t have gotten _that_ far. 

Half a blink later, Sans found himself standing on a grassy hill. The sun was behind him, casting golden light over an unbroken field of green. The wind picked up, making the grass sway. It pulled at his robe, the edges whipping around the circle of dead grass surrounding the point where Sans’s feet touched the ground.

Sans glanced down and saw twin white columns standing on the other side of the hill below his feet, marking the entrance to a shrine. While they weren’t in the same state of disrepair as the statues he’d seen inside, the cracks and weather erosion were still obvious even from a glance. Not too bad for blind teleportation. He’d wanted to go to the top of the shrine, and that was where he’d ended up.

Sans looked back up. He didn’t feel anything aside from the ever-present background pull on his magic towards the realm of the gods and the distinct pulse of nearby souls. He could even see the source—a small town a ways off, hugging the horizon. Sans could even catch the slight reflection of green and light blue souls making their way back from the fields on the outskirts. It was the kind of place with dirt roads and simple homes, with an even divide of generations. The kind of place where people usually just passed on in their sleep, familiar ground for Papyrus. Sans only came to these kinds of places when a birth went wrong or someone tripped and fell on the sharp end of their farming tool. Otherwise, places like that were quiet. It was a normal town for a place like this, with a quiet breeze. 

Sans started to turn away—he could cut his losses for now, and go back and take a nap before having to deal with this black soul business—when something else caught his eye.

A forest stood on the other side of the town, opposite from the fields. Its trees covered a few small hills, not unlike the one he stood on at that moment. The highest hill stood in its center, where the trees were packed together. Closer to its edge, near the town, Sans could spot unblemished souls playing near the outskirts—kids, probably—

Sans shaded his eye sockets with one hand. Even with a god’s vision, he wanted to be sure that he wasn’t making a mistake.

Two greens, a blue, and a yellow. He’d thought that the yellow soul was an orange at first glance, but then the soul ran closer to the edge of the forest, grabbing onto a low hanging tree branch to swing on it. The moment the soul touched the tree, their color burned as bright as the ones he’d found in the old shrine.

Sans kept watching as the other souls gathered around the yellow one. While their light was not as intense, the closer they were to the forest, the brighter their souls burned. The further away they were, the more they returned to a normal glow. 

If this were any other day, Sans would have thought that it was a trick of the light. But the intense color of the dyed red souls still burned his eye sockets.  
“ok,” Sans smiled. “if you’re not up for jokes, i guess i can play some hide-and-seek.”

The world shifted around him yet again. Teleporting above ground—or outside of the Underworld at all, really—was more complicated than it looked, but it was easy with a clear destination in mind. Sans had picked the tallest tree in the densest part of the forest, on top of the hill. 

If _he_ were some kind of being outside the cycle, he wouldn’t bother hiding in plain sight. Of course, there was the possibility that it might expect him to think just that, but it was easier for Sans to teleport into the forest, see what he felt, and then refine the location from there. 

He landed several yards away from his intended stopping point. 

Sans glanced around the clearing. Precision was key in teleportation, or at least needed some extra space to account for mistakes. It was the one thing that Sans didn’t mess around with—at least, not since he got stuck inside a wall at an inn that doubled as a morgue. That place probably still had ghost rumors attached to it.

At first Sans thought that he’d somehow missed the tree—grass spread out in front of him unbroken for several yards before the forest trees cropped up again, close together and growing on a slant down the side of the hill. However, the light quality over the tops of the trees looked different from where he stood in the clearing. 

The wind picked up again, and Sans heard leaves moving high above him. He tilted his skull back to see green branches shading the area, the leaves creating a canopy. The tree was behind him, towering over the rest.

Sans floated towards the tree to get a better look. Now that he was closer, he could see that it wasn’t an average teleportation landmark—and not just because of its size. Two separate tree trunks had grown out of the ground and somehow ended up growing towards each other. They met in the middle, twining around the other and growing higher than all the other trees, their branches carving out a space for anyone who may be standing below. The way the tree trunks arched together made it look like a natural doorway, but the only thing between the two were a bunch of overgrown vines. 

As intricate as it looked, the tree just a fluke of nature. Sans turned around, wondering if something else would catch his eye again, but there was nothing around save for the trees and a few animals fleeing his presence further into the forest. He couldn’t feel anything close to what he’d experienced in that abandoned shrine.  
Still… He didn’t like the way he’d overshot the tree. Maybe it was worth a second look.

Sans turned around—

—Something caught on his scythe. 

He shook the handle, trying to knock it free. There was some sort of joke in Death getting his weapon caught in a spider web. He’d have to think of a way to refine the idea later. 

But not matter how much he tugged, the scythe wouldn’t come free. Sans looked up at it, wondering if he’d caught one of the Goddess of Fortune’s threads by accident, and saw something translucent and purple wrapped around the blade.

As soon as he looked at it, a voice echoed around him.

_Leave this place, my child. You have already earned my blessing._

It was a woman’s voice, one that Sans didn’t recognize. For a moment he thought that he was hallucinating, but then her voice sounded out of the strange purple material again.

_Leave this place, my child. You have already earned my blessing._

“barrier,” Sans muttered. This kind of thing would work well enough against humans, but it had no effect on him. He smiled. “don’t you know that cheating is against hide and seek rules?” he said.

Sans dragged the scythe straight down, creating a large purple rip in midair. He pulled out the scythe and stepped through the widest part of the tear, heading straight for the tree. Sans looked up at the twisted trunks rising above him and then stopped when he reached the mass of vines. He lifted his hand—

“knock knock.”

Sans rapped his knuckles against the vines like it was a real door. In response, the vines withered at the point where he’d touched them. The dull brown color of dead foliage moved along the vines like the wind until enough had wilted away that Sans could see through it.

Instead of a view of the opposite end of the clearing, something else was there.

On the other side, reflecting the golden light of the setting sun, was a field of flowers. An endless spectrum of colors, shapes, and sizes seemed to jump out at Sans, even in the increasing twilight. Flowers he’d only seen in remote regions of the world with bright reds and blues stood next to dandelions and common wildflowers. The slight breeze he’d felt earlier moved across them, and the flowers swayed with it. In a strange way, it reminded Sans of the ever-moving hourglasses from the top of the Spiral. 

All the different varieties of flowers seemed to mix together without much rhyme or reason until Sans noticed the neat rows spaced throughout the field. The grassy pathways were just wide enough for someone to walk down and water the flowers.  The small sense of organization made it clear that this was deliberate—every kind of flower in the world wouldn’t spontaneously bloom on this spot with no outside influence. 

This wasn’t a field. It was a garden.

The widest grassy path was right in front of him, sloping upwards. Sans realized that the tree was just part of an illusion—the real top of the hill was up ahead. He walked between the tree trunks, moving aside some of the dead vines in his way.

As soon as he took a step on the grass, the rush of Life almost knocked him over. 

Sans caught his balance as the grass began to wilt under his feet. For a moment he wondered if he’d just felt a strong wind, but the flowers were still waving in the light breeze as though nothing had happened. The brown circle of dead grass underneath his feet continued to grow, reaching out like the dead vines across the green. 

It was almost as if Death had never existed in this space before. 

The dead grass spread up and away from him like a shadow, but the flowers were left untouched. Just how strong was Life’s influence in this place? Sans walked up the path, the grass turning black with every footprint he left behind. 

What he’d ripped with his scythe wasn’t the only barrier—the vines had served as one too. There was no way he couldn’t have sensed this much Life on the other side of the entrance otherwise. Still, it was an impressive feat to be able to hide something like this from him. Sans paused, looking out over a row of flowers. Even though he still hadn’t made it to the top, he could see over the tips of the trees surrounding the meadow, providing a view of the rooftops of the small village below. He could see more souls between the houses, most of them pulsing blue or green. If he looked long enough, Sans was sure he could pick out every single soul in the village.

Sans looked away, floating over the last part of the dirt path to the top of the hill. There was no question that a deity had created this place, but Sans couldn’t guess which one. He’d heard the God of Creation had a thing for flowers, but that was secondhand information. The only other one was—

He stopped at the top of the hill. All the dirt and grass had vanished at the end of the path, swallowed up by tiny golden flowers. The breeze picked up, catching petals and throwing them into the air like drops of sunlight. Sans had never seen flowers like those before.

At least, not when they weren’t made out of stone and part of a statue built to honor a certain goddess.

A figure dressed in robes of green and gold kneeled in the center of the golden flowers. A veil covered their head, it edges floating in the breeze like a cloud. Their arms were bare and fuzzy with white fur. 

One hand was cradling the petals of a flower in the same way that Sans held reaped souls before moving them to their hourglass. But despite how gentle the gesture looked, Sans could still see the claws at the end of their fingers. He could also spot slight horns on their head, poking out from underneath the veil.

Something about that combined with the fur felt familiar somehow—

_They were screaming and covered in red. He didn’t know why they were clinging to that shell. There was nothing left to respond to their cries._

_They turned and glared up at him with watery purple eyes. “Give them back!” they screamed, voice breaking. “This isn’t their fault! GIVE THEM BACK!”_

Sans unconsciously took a step forwards, his scythes appearing in his hands. The flowers closest to him wilted and collapsed into shriveled heaps.  
The figure in the center of the flowers jumped and rose—they were much taller than he’d expected—a spark of fire flashing to life in the hand that had cradled the flower just moments before. 

Sans knew that spark. He’d felt it that morning in the moment the human child’s soul came into existence. He’d felt it flickering out every time he reaped a soul. For as long as he’d existed, Sans had felt that spark pushing back against him on the other side of the cycle.

The Goddess of Life glared at him, purple eyes and white fur glowing with the light of the fire she held in her hand.

“How did you get in here?” she said, her commanding face and tone making her look every inch the queen who had once ruled alongside the God of Creation.

Sans let his scythes vanish, holding up his palms. “hey, don’t get all _fired_ up,” he said. “i did knock.”

He thought he saw her lips twitch for a split second, but a fresh burst of flame coming from her hand overshadowed the movement. “I am not in the mood for jokes,” she said. “How did you get past my barrier?”

“uh, the first one or the second one?” Sans asked, dropping his hands back down to his sides. “‘cause the first one only really works on humans, and the second one just kinda _died_ on me.”

The sun continued to dip in the sky, turning the clouds above them a bright red. The fire began to cast shadows across Life’s face as she stared down at him. “You will tell me your purpose in coming here,” she said, her voice cold. “And then you will leave and not return.” 

Sans whistled. “wow,” he said. “i think your statues are friendlier than you are, lady.”

“I will not be disrespected by a demigod who has tracked such a…pestilence into my garden,” Life continued, pointing with her other hand at the wilted flowers inches away from Sans’s feet. “You will answer my questions and then will begone from this place.”

Sans’s smile slipped a little. “hey,” he said, crossing his arms, “no offense to any of the demigods, they do good work, but I’m not one of them. i’m a god as much as you’re a goddess.”

She gave him a disdainful look that made Sans think that she saw him more like an annoying bug than an equal. Or maybe she thought even less of him than that—this was Life after all, she probably liked bugs. 

A stronger breeze blew across the top of the hill, causing the flowers to bend and Life’s fire to gutter for a split second. She didn’t break eye contact with him for a moment. 

“huh. you look mad enough to burn a hole right through me,” Sans said. 

Life didn’t answer. 

“silent treatment, huh?” Sans continued. “ok, you win. i’m just here to finish up a job. any chance that underneath all this magic, you’re hiding something that shouldn’t be roaming the surface anymore?”

He thought that her frown couldn’t get any deeper, but it did. “what are you talking about?” she asked.

Sans shrugged. “you tell me,” he said. “i was holding up the rules on _my_ end of the cycle when something that shouldn’t be alive anymore showed up.”

The fire in Life’s hand went out, but her expression did not change. “And you think that _I_ have something to do with it?” she said.

“welp, they did seem like they knew where they were going,” Sans said. He started circling the edge of the flower patch, rotting petals and dead grass left behind in his path. “and when i looked around the area, i just happened to stumble on your barrier,” he continued. “it seemed kinda suspicious that something like that disappeared so fast, so i decided to check it out.” 

“So Death forces his way in where he’s not invited,” Life said, turning her head to follow his circular path. 

“in my defense, i wasn’t aware that this space was taken,” Sans said, winking.

“This is sacred ground,” Life continued, still frowning at him. “I am not sure what you are accusing me of, but you have made a mistake.” Her eyes narrowed. “Leave at once. I will not ask again.”

“i dunno,” Sans said, shrugging and continuing on his path. “all this magic makes it hard to sense anything else. And if I had to run from…well, _me_ , life’s garden would be a perfect spot.” 

Life was forced to turn around to keep glaring at him. 

“but, uh, _sacred_?” Sans continued walking, glancing her way. “no offense lady, but having a bunch of flowers and some magic in a place doesn’t make it _sacred_.”

“What would you know about it?” Life said, her tone sharp. 

Sans stopped walking, looking out over the tops of the trees towards the village. “just seems to me that this place could only be called _sacred_ because of the mirror image you’re trying to create,” he said, gesturing towards the rooftops. “i, uh, can’t speak too much about the realm of the deities from personal experience, but i hear the gods can watch over the whole of humanity from there. i also heard that you used to have a garden up there too.” He turned back towards Life, grinning. “feeling a little homesick?” he asked. 

Life wasn’t looking at him anymore. Her mouth set in a hard, thin line as she stared down at her flowers.

“eh, guess you can’t beat the view,” Sans shrugged, looking back at the village. “gotta still feel good about your work as goddess even though you don’t show up for it yourself, right?” 

He heard Life suck in her breath behind him.

Something white hot flew past Sans’s hood a second later.

It landed on one of the flowerbeds on the slope behind him. Sans spun around, surprised that Life would destroy her own garden just to get a shot at him, but there was no damage on the spot where the fire had hit the ground. The colorful petals of the flowers shone through the flames as the fire began to fade away—in fact, they looked even brighter than before.

“heh,” Sans laughed, sweat dripping down his cheek where the fireball had almost hit him. “guess that explains why these flowers haven’t burnt out their time just yet.”

“I have no time for your disrespectful comments and accusations,” Life said behind him. Sans turned back around to see that she’d faced her palm towards him, another ball of fire growing in front of it. Her regal glare had returned. “Do not speak about my choices as if you understand why I made them,” she finished.

Sans stared back at the fireball aimed towards his head and sighed. “honestly lady, i could care less what you do,” he said, shrugging. “one of us has to hold up the cycle. just tell me where you’re hiding your pet soul so that i can get on with my break.”

“What you are looking for is not here,” Life answered. The fire crackled, the sparks reflected in her eyes. “If you will not leave, then I will force you to do so,” she said.

The two of them stared at each other, the sky turning a dark shade of orange as half of the sun disappeared over the horizon.

“ok,” Sans said, kicking off from the ground to float in midair. “i guess i’ll just go check in on that little village over there instead.”

The flame in Life’s hand faltered. “What do you want with those people?” she asked.

“if the anomaly in the cycle isn’t here, then it’s probably somewhere nearby,” Sans said. He floated up towards the break in the trees. “who knows,” he continued, crossing his legs in midair, “maybe i’ll run into some more souls that i need to deal with.”

The flame regained some of its strength, and Life tilted her head up to make eye contact with Sans again. “Are you threatening innocent humans?” she asked.

Sans started laughing, clutching his midsection and doubling over. He did one full spin in midair before he noticed that Life’s expression hadn’t changed. 

“wow, you’re serious?” he said, his shoulders still shaking with laughter. “lady, c’mon. you _have_ to know that there’s no such thing as an innocent human. corruption gets to all of them eventually.”

“Innocence and corruption are not the inverse of each other,” Life said. She took a step towards him, the wind catching the embers of the fire and scattering them behind her. “Regardless, you will find that this village and its surrounding lands do not carry corrupted souls,” she continued. “The land is fertile and peaceful, so there is no reason for them to give in to baser desires.”

Sans tilted his skull to one side. “you sure about that?” he asked, grinning down at her.

“I am,” Life answered. Even though it was only a reflection of the light, it looked as if her eyes were burning as well. “They are good people, like the rest of humanity,” she said. “And I will defend the lives that are under my watch.”

Sans just stared at her for a moment, his eye sockets dark. “so is that old shrine in the hills over there also ‘under your watch’?” he asked. 

“Why?” Life asked, otherwise unmoving.

“just wondering,” Sans said with a shrug. “since I just found ten corrupted souls down there.”

Life’s mask of fury dropped, replaced with wide-eyed shock. Her hand fell a little, the fire trembling in front of her palm. “What?” she said. 

“ten,” Sans repeated, holding up all of his fingers. “dyed red down to the core.” 

“Red?” Life echoed, bringing her other hand to her mouth. The fire in her hand guttered and went out. 

“sorry to _put you out_ , lady,” Sans said, floating back down until he was a few feet away from her. The edges of his robes brushed the tops of the golden flowers, turning their petals brown. 

“You are lying,” she said, her voice muffled behind her hand. 

Sans held his hands up, smiling. “what would I get out of that?” he asked.

“The corruption of humans is _your_ fault,” she said, her hand dropping. The frown returned to her face. “They fear you, and their hearts turn dark when they feel that they are wasting the time that they have been given,” she said.

“heh, i’ll agree with you to a point,” Sans said, folding his arms. “ _something’s_ corrupting them, but it’s not me. That would take way too much effort on my end.” He reached for the dark hourglass, unhooking it from his belt. Holding it in his hands, he closed the gap between him and Life, holding it up for her to see. 

“even if I was,” Sans said, leaning towards her, “it’s hard to pass judgement on a soul when they’ve lost all their color.”

Life’s mouth fell open with another gasp. Sans saw her jaw move as though she was trying to say something, but no sound came out. She looked so sad that for a moment Sans believed that she really didn’t know anything about what was going on. 

He leaned in. “i just want the thing that did this to this soul,” he said. “If you’re hiding them here, then they’ll do this again. Just hand them over to me.” Sans felt his eyes grow dark. “I can’t let the cycle be changed because of sentimentality.”

Life shook her head, looking down at the flowers once more. A moment passed, the sky above them turning a dark purple as the last rays of sunlight disappeared.

Sans heard her breath catch.

“Did you say ten souls?” Life asked, her voice low.

“lady,” Sans said, pulling back, “i don’t miscount souls.”

Her fangs flashed in the deepening twilight as her mouth contorted into a snarl. “So that disturbance in the cycle I felt outside of town was _you_ ,” she said.

“maybe,” Sans said with a wink. He reattached the hourglass to his belt and began to float upwards again. “that depends,” he continued. “did you feel souls dropping out of the cycle permanently? or did you feel something outside the cycle moving their remains? only one of those was me.”

Another burst of white heat flew past his face, sending sharp sparks of her magic across his cheekbone. A moment after it passed, Sans felt the light breeze and realized that half of his hood had disintegrated in the flame. Blinking away the bright afterimage of the fire, Sans felt slight drain on his magic as his hood reformed itself around his head. 

He looked back at Life. Yet another fireball was aimed at him. She’d gone back to her commanding glare, but the effect was ruined a little by the tear stains down the sides of her muzzle.

“Leave,” she said.

Sans pulled at the sides of his reformed hood. “guess I finally pushed you too far, huh?” he said. “ok, you win.” He bowed in midair with a flourish of his hand. “I’d say it was nice to finally meet you, life, but I don’t think either of us feel that way,” Sans said.

She didn’t answer. 

“just, uh, be aware that if what I’m looking for _is_ here,” Sans said, widening the distance between them, “next time I won’t be as friendly.”

Her eyes narrowed, but she didn’t look away. 

Sans met her glare as he floated back down the hill towards the entrance. When he was on the surface or in the Underworld, he could teleport where he pleased. But there were a limited number of ways for him to pass between the two worlds, and he didn’t want Life to exploit that flaw to trap him there. He floated backwards down the hill, feeling the petals of the larger flowers catching on his heels and wilting at the contact. But Sans refused to look away until she disappeared behind the top edge of the hill, out of sight. 

He flew towards the entrance, hearing something that sounded like a fireball coming towards him as he passed between the tree trunks—

—And then stopped before he crashed into a cluster of hourglasses.

Sans looked around. He was back in the Underworld, just below the tangible darkness that allowed him to follow the hourglass chains up to their owners. The golden chains jingled as they moved around him, some of the hourglasses rising or lowering depending on the brightness of their glow and the amount of sand that they had left. Sans let out a breath that he didn’t need to hold, floating below the lowest hanging hourglass, its green glow washing over him.

He’d met Life, and she hadn’t been anything like what he’d expected.

Sans frowned, rolling over in midair to look below him. The hourglasses on his belt shifted as well, hanging down towards the Spiral. The beginnings of the soul streams were still far beneath him, and the top of the Spiral was further than that. But even with the distance, Sans could still spot Papyrus’s red scarf. He was waiting next to the blue stream where Sans had left him, a bit to the side from where Sans was now. He couldn’t see the dull chains from the broken hourglasses anymore—they’d probably vanished the moment that he’d removed those souls from the cycle.

Sans glanced at the dark hourglass. Even just looking at the blackened, colorless soul felt wrong.

He still couldn’t feel any trace of that anomaly. 

Sans started to descend towards the surface of the Spiral, tucking the hourglass without a glow under the sleeve of his robe. He took his time, making long circles in midair around the soul streams, but after a few minutes Sans saw Papyrus’s skull turn and spot him. His brother waved up at him, taking long steps over the streams to meet Sans at his landing point.

“YOU LOST THE SOULS AGAIN,” Papyrus said. 

Sans knew it wasn’t a question. He made a light touch down on the surface, his robe billowing around him like a cloud before it decided to follow the pull of gravity again. 

“yeah,” Sans said. He turned away from Papyrus. “well, there was one leftover, but—” Sans cut himself off, feeling like the weight of the hourglass was dragging him down. 

“sorry bro,” he continued after the pause. “i guess that surprise job just took more out of me than i thou—”

He was cut off again, but this time it was because of Papyrus’s arms wrapping around him. His scarf pressed against Sans’s face, cooling the sides of his skull where Life’s magic still stung.

“I KNOW HOW MUCH YOU HATE GOING AFTER SOULS WHO’VE GIVEN UP,” Papyrus said, hugging Sans tighter. “BUT YOU DID THE RIGHT THING. THEY’RE RESTING WHERE THEY WANT TO BE NOW.”

Sans stood still, not returning the hug. His lie felt heavier than the hourglasses.

Papyrus gave him one last squeeze and let go. Sans patted Papyrus’s arm as he pulled away. “thanks bro,” he said. He turned towards the hole in the center of the Spiral and pointed at it with his thumb. “i’m gonna drop off the hourglass i picked up earlier and take a break.” 

“SANS, WAIT,” Papyrus said. 

Sans turned back toward him to see Papyrus looking at the ground. “What’s wrong?” Sans asked.

“IT WAS ONLY FOR A MOMENT, BUT I FELT THAT STRANGE THING AGAIN,” Papyrus said, pointing up. “IT FELT LIKE IT WAS EXACTLY WHERE YOU WENT TO FIND THE SOULS. DO YOU THINK IT MIGHT HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH…?” He trailed off, his hands hanging in the air with his last word.

For a moment it was silent enough to hear the movement of the gold chains on the hourglasses above them.

“yeah,” Sans said. “i think so.”

Papyrus sighed, running a hand over his right eye socket. “I HAD A BAD FEELING IT DID,” he said. “DID YOU FIND OUT WHAT IT IS?”

“nope,” Sans said, pulling his hood further over his face. “but i’m gonna start looking into it—”

“OH, GOOD—”

“right after i take a nap,” Sans finished, walking away from Papyrus. 

“WH—” Papyrus looked back and forth between the ceiling and Sans walking away. “SANS!” he shouted after him. “YOU STILL HAVE SOULS YOU NEED TO JUDGE!”

Sans held up a hand to wave over his shoulder at his brother before teleporting away from that level. 

He’d reaped a new mother’s soul, had destroyed ten corrupted ones that had broken their own hourglasses, discovered that the anomaly could possess human bodies as well as fly faster than he could teleport, and had walked into Life’s secret garden on accident after she’d spent a millennia hiding.

Sans felt bad about not telling Papyrus everything, but right now all he wanted was his break.


	4. Judgement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans placed the hourglass back onto the floor. "let's start the judgement."

Sans walked along the blackened stone path, the soft glow of magma on either side lighting his way. The rock walls closed in the further he walked down the path, until there was only just enough space for him to pass through. The magma shone through the cracks at the bottom of the walls. If it weren’t for the blue hourglass, Sans would not have been able to see at all.

He yawned, rolling his skull from shoulder to shoulder. The joints in his neck clicked and popped. Sans wasn’t sure how long he’d slept. It hadn’t been long enough for Papyrus to come wake him, so he assumed he’d missed a day at most. He hadn’t been awake for more than a few minutes before he’d felt the pull from the top of the Spiral from hourglasses about to run out. There was a busy day of soul reaping waiting for him after he took care of this. Just the thought made Sans want to turn around and go back to sleep.

The darkness in the small rock cavern wasn’t helping either. Sans could make the path down to the bottom of the Spiral in his sleep—something that he’d done a few times before Papyrus noticed his new sleepwalking habits—but every time he wished that he could just teleport down there instead.

Sans glanced at the glowing blue hourglass. He was already sure how this judgement would go. Despite the risks, maybe he could just start placing the souls at the level that matched their corrupted color instead of having to go through this process every time.

As he considered it, Sans felt a change in the air as the stone path opened up from the small cavern into a wide area. The darkness was still the same, but the dull glow of the magma expanded from a line into distinct cracks running through the ground, splitting and twisting into random patterns until they all stopped at a circle of black stone in the center. The circle was the only space illuminated with consistent light, coming from a circle in the ceiling far above Sans’s head.

He could see the bottom tip of the Spiral above him, the tail ends of the soul streams rushing through. They ran along the sides of the walls and collected into pools set above the cracked floor. Each pool glowed with its distinct colored light, but it still wasn’t enough to break through the darkness. It was Papyrus’s job to check the souls in the pools for any distortions—small ones were coming through more and more often. The rest were Sans’s problem.

He stepped into the circle, squinting up at the light filtering through from above. The bottom of the Spiral was dark and uncomfortable, even for Death. Even with the soft glow around him and the light from above, the place felt like the inverse of the welcoming light from Limbo.

Sans looked back down, stopping in the center of the circle. He removed the two hourglasses from his belt, placing the glowing blue one into a circle worn into the ground. He held the dark one in his right hand for now. Just in case.

Sans held his left hand over the bright hourglass, willing the soul to appear in front of him one last time.

The hourglass glowed even brighter, beginning to rattle. Sparks of light flew out of it, collecting underneath Sans’s hand. The hourglass shook, vibrating hard enough that it seemed like it would fall apart, but the edges of the circle on the ground kept it in place.

Within a few moments,a bright replica of the soul shone underneath Sans’s hand.

He turned his palm, and the mirror of the soul did as well, rising up above the hourglass before the sparks scattered like fireflies. They reformed a few feet away into the shape of a human, glowing blue like their soul.

Sans picked up the glowing hourglass once again, setting the dark one on the floor next to his foot. Holding it in both hands, he waited for the afterimage of the soul to clear.

Most of the time, the shock of dying made the soul’s afterimage a mirror of how they appeared the moment of their death. Sometimes, there were slight variations depending on how the soul viewed themselves when they were alive; Sans had seen many afterimages with huge ears or lips among other visions of self doubt, when those features hadn’t stood out to him at all on their physical body. That said, Sans had trouble noticing things about humans that didn’t have to do with the color of their soul. But he did notice that the more altered their afterimage, the more likely the soul was corrupted beyond easy repair.

As the afterimage came into focus, Sans noticed that this was one of those cases. The afterimage of the blue soul had far wider hips than was physically possible, yet the rest of her seemed accurate to the moment of her death, all the way down to the details on the golden jewelry she’d worn. Sans watched in silence as she looked around, phantom mouth hanging open.

“Where am I?” the echo of her voice asked.

“the end of the road,” Sans said. “but, uh, it didn’t seem like you were exactly _dying_  to get here.”

The afterimage fixed her glowing eyes on him before putting a hand to her mouth in shock. Her outline pulsed with the same color as her soul. “I’m…dead?” she asked.

“as a doornail,” Sans said.

The afterimage gasped, holding her other hand over her mouth. She shook her head. “ _No_ ,“ she sobbed. “No no no, I just had my baby, everything was going right for once—”

Sans shrugged. “ok then,” he said, coaxing the soul out of its hourglass. It floated on his palm the same way it had when he’d reaped it. Sans grinned at the afterimage. “let’s start the judgement.”

The afterimage turned paler than it was before. “Judgment?” she repeated.

“the other souls—i mean, people you were with were saying a lot of things about life and me,” Sans said, turning the soul over in his hand. “so you know how this works, right? or were you one of those kids who never listened to the stories?”

The afterimage gulped. “I know them, but I never believed—” she started, but stopped as her form blurred. Sans had wrapped his fingers around her soul and was staring closer at it.

“you did believe once,” he said, his voice low enough that he might as well have been talking to himself. “but early on, you lost everything.”

The afterimage sharpened itself back into clarity. “Yes,” she said, frowning back at Death. “I believed because my parents believed.” She sucked in a nonexistent breath, grasping at her phantom jewelry. “But where did that get them when they fell ill?” she shouted, glaring at him. “They believed praying was better than medicine. But the only one that answered them was _you_."

Sans didn’t look at the afterimage, examining the memories etched into the soul instead. As much as he’d rather judge souls closer to his napping spot, the darkness at the bottom of the Spiral was good for making out details that the light would have drowned out.

“Well?” the afterimage demanded. “Why? Why did you take them away? It couldn’t have been their time yet, just like it wasn’t mine—!”

“hey, i never told you how to do your job,” Sans said in a tone that made it clear that he couldn’t care either way. “and this isn’t my judgement—it’s yours. play along for a minute and you’ll never have to talk to me again. ok?”

The afterimage let out a choked sob in response. Sans continued peering at the soul.

“your parents were poor to begin with, so there was nothing left,” he continued. “you decided that gaining money was the answer.” He held up the soul, pointing to a green blotch in the center of the blue. “so you tried to dye yourself in a different color… and corrupted yourself in the process.”

The afterimage shook her head, false earrings blurring out of existence. “I just wanted a better life,” she said in a shaking voice.

“nothing wrong with that,” Sans said. He tapped the soul with one finger. “but, uh, keep this in mind… this thing lets me see all of your intentions. it won’t kill you to be honest with me.” He shrugged. “maybe it’ll even make this easier.”

There was a long silence as the afterimage wiped away some transparent tears. “I admit to wanting many things,” she said, “but my life is not what it looks like.”

“ok,” Sans said, spinning the soul on his palm with his thumb.

“I did love him,” she continued, the echo in her voice growing louder. “It was not about his money.”

“he saw you dance and asked you to travel with him on the spot,” Sans said, tilting the soul to one side. “you didn’t even know his name.”

“Isn’t that proof that it wasn’t about money?” the afterimage said. “I knew nothing about him. How could I know that he was rich?”

“but you could see the gold rings on his fingers,” Sans said, pointing where the soul was dyed the deepest green. “at least, that’s all you’ve got in your memory of him,” Sans continued. “gold rings.”

She crossed her arms, but her eyes were growing wider in fear. “I learned to love him,” she said, a waver in her voice.

“looks like his family didn’t exactly approve,” Sans said, looking at the reflection on the back side of the soul now. He grinned up at the afterimage. “guess the kid came at the right time, huh?”

The figure blurred again, the outline around her turning green when she snapped back into focus. “My child was not a pawn!” she shouted, her echo becoming scratchy.

Sans dropped the soul back into the hourglass. Green light now mixed with the blue. “looks like the truth of it doesn’t really matter,” Sans said with a shrug. “you corrupted yourself with greed either way.”

The afterimage clutched her arms, her form shrinking down to half its size. “No,” she whispered. “I just… I thought that I’d been abandoned. I thought that only the physical world meant something.”

“i noticed,” Sans said. He pointed towards her necklace. “you even tried to take it with you.”

The jewelry vanished from the afterimage as tears streamed down her cheeks. She shook her head, shoulders shaking. Sans watched the afterimage with blank eye sockets for a moment before taking a few steps closer.

“good for you, kid,” he said. “it’s not easy to give up on something you’ve dedicated most of your life to.”

“What does it matter?” she said, her voice watery. “My life has ended, and Death has judged me. Haven’t you?”

Sans didn’t answer.

Out of the shadows, circling around the ring of light, several floating skulls came into view. They were bigger than both the afterimage and Sans, the fangs from their animal-like jaws taller than both of them. They glowed from within with a white light that outlined their features, making their teeth appear sharper and pupils brighter. The afterimage gasped and shrank even smaller. They drew closer, stopped, and then fixed their pupils on Sans, waiting.

He turned the hourglass over in his hands.

“you will be sent to the third level of the spiral,” Sans said, his eye sockets still dark. “when you have repented and the corruption from your soul has been removed, you will have the ability to rejoin the cycle.” He said it in the worn tone of something that he’d repeated so many times that it might as well have lost its meaning.

Responding to an unseen cue, the floating skulls began to drift into the ring of light—

“Wait!” the afterimage shouted out, throwing up her arms. “Wait. Please. I only want to ask you one question.”

The skulls stopped. Sans looked up at the afterimage, but now only his smile was visible under the shadow of his hood. “ok,” he said. “what is it?”

The afterimage reached her hands towards the space where her necklace had been, but caught herself and clasped her hands together instead. “Did my child live?” she asked.

One of the skulls shifted in place, scattering more dust motes across the ring of light.

“they’re not here,” Sans said.

The afterimage leaned forward. “How are they doing?” she asked.

Sans held up a finger. “you said you only had one question,” he said.

“ _Please_ ," the afterimage begged. “I need to know if they are all right. I do not want them to end up like me.”

“that’s up to them,” Sans said. “and even if they did, it doesn’t affect you anymore. it’s just like what you said earlier.” He held up the hourglass. “your life is over, and death has judged you.”

The outline of the afterimage flared green again. “Then you’re damning me forever!” she said. “I can’t simply _stop_  caring about my own child—”

“your time has ended,” Sans said. “there’s no point in thinking about things that no longer concern you.”

The afterimage glared at him, mouth hanging open. “Are you saying that a mother’s fear for her child _doesn’t matter_?” she asked.

Sans’s smile grew wider. “it doesn’t after i show up,” he said

The afterimage shook her head, her outline pulsing green. “I refuse to accept that,” she said. “I made mistakes, but I love my child. The last thing that that I did was beg you not to take them. Even you cannot deny that.”

Sans shrugged. “the kind of love that lasts after me isn’t dyed in corruption like yours,” he said.

“What could Death know about love?” she screamed at him, her image falling apart at the edges. But her eyes stayed steady, retaining the same glare—

And for a moment, Death felt like he was staring down Life in her garden again.

Sans lifted his hand, and the afterimage collapsed into particles of light once more. They streamed back into the hourglass, collecting around the soul. Now the light behind the glass was more green than blue.

“sorry,” Sans said to the hourglass, “but i don’t have a lot of energy for arguments.”

The skulls circled tighter around him, floating just above Sans’s head. He held up the hourglass towards him. “uh, two of you take this to the third level,” Sans said. “i’m gonna need the others to stick around here. not sure what’s gonna happen with the next one.”

Two of the skulls floated down to Sans’s feet, where he hooked the chains of the hourglass around their fangs. Its light reflecting off the skulls looked like a sickly green, and it grew in intensity with each passing moment. He nodded at the skulls and they lifted up into the air, carrying the hourglass between them.

He watched as they disappeared up into the rest of the Spiral above, moving between the soul streams before they passed through. Sans waited until the shadow of the skulls faded away and the others had moved outside the circle of light before he turned to the dark hourglass, sitting forgotten to the side.

“ok then,” Sans said, picking it up. He held it up to his face, looking at the burned soul inside. “what’s your story, pal?”

There was no sign of light from the soul, not even a flicker. Sans lowered the hourglass, setting it inside the worn circle. Using the same gesture as before, he lifted his hand over the hourglass, not sure what to expect.

It wasn’t the same as before.

There was still no light, and the hourglass did not shake. Instead, a dark substance began to rise out of the blackened soul, filling up the hourglass until it began to seep out between the dents in the battered metal casing, rising up like smoke. Sans watched, not looking away. The skulls drew closer until he lifted his other hand, telling them without words to stay back. This was odd, but it wasn’t dangerous. Not yet.

The smoke grew in volume, seeming to suck out the small bit of light that surrounded it into a gaping nothing. Even against the surrounding darkness, Sans could still make out its edges. It was darker than even the shadows at the bottom of the Spiral. This had to be a first.

As Sans continued to watch the growing smoke cloud, a low giggle began to drift out of its depths.

“They were right!” said a dry, keening voice. “It happened exactly as they said it would! I really am…without a color.” The laughter continued, higher pitched this time.

Sans stooped down, picking up the hourglass and fishing out the dark soul from inside it. “that sure is an interesting form you’ve picked for yourself,” he said to the smoke cloud.

“Oh? Does it bother you?” the voice asked.

Sans shrugged. “not really,” he said. “but, uh, i gotta say that i’m used to talking to things that have a face.”

The voice giggled again. “But of course. Anything to accommodate the God of Death,” they said in a mocking tone.

The smoke cloud shrunk, pulling in on itself in various angles with sharp tugs, looking like an explosion in reverse. A moment later, a dark and featureless humanoid figure stood across from Sans. “Is that better?” the voice asked.

“it works,” Sans said, placing the hourglass back onto the floor. “let’s start the judgement.”

The voice cackled, its laughter growing in volume. It threw back its head, shoulders shaking. “Go ahead, _Death_ ,” it said in gasping bursts. “Try to judge me.”

Sans looked at the soul. He hoped that maybe the shadows below the Spiral would be enough to bring _something_  into focus, but the soul was just like the afterimage that stood across from him. He couldn’t make out a single memory from this soul. No age, no gender, no family, no childhood, no tipping point that started their soul’s corruption, nothing.

It was as if it had all burned away.

The laughter from the smoky figure went back down to a scattered giggle once again. “You can’t see anything, can you?” it asked, the voice filling with glee. “You can’t see anything about who I was. How will you judge a soul whose secrets are lost to you?”

Sans looked back up at the figure with blank eye sockets. “guess we’re both gonna find that out, huh?” he said.

The figure wrapped its arms around its phantom stomach as it doubled over, bits of smoke trailing from its limbs. “I, _hee hee hee_ , I can’t believe it,” the voice said, unable to contain its giggling. “I’m the first one! Just as they promised. Just as they predicted.”

“did… _they_  turn it this color?” Sans asked, pointing at the soul.

“They promised,” the afterimage giggled. “They would wipe it all clean. No past, no future, no self. Just an infinite dark void. _Forever_."

More and more smoke leaked out of the figure, as if the cloud were a more natural form for it than a human one.

Sans kept a tight hold on the soul in his hand. “what do you mean?” he asked, his voice even.

“They said that if I gave up my entire being to them, then they would erase everything that I was,” the voice said, rising in pitch to a tone of rapture. “They promised that my life and my memories would be only mine, and that the gods would no longer be able to judge me for my actions.” The limbs on the figure began to crumble back into smoke.

“And they did it!” the voice continued, the excitement rising. “All the vices that I indulged in, all the lives that I ruined and _stopped_ … You can’t see any of it, can you, Death?”

Sans glanced back down at the soul as the voice laughed, waiting for any reaction from it. But there was still nothing. What kind of afterimage was this?

“sure you don’t just wanna have a friendly chat?” Sans said, grinning back up at the reformed smoke cloud.

“I know better than to admit my sins to Death,” the voice continued. “You have no choice but to send me to Limbo and eventually back into the cycle. You cannot judge me for my sins, since you cannot see them!”

Sans shrugged. “ok, then,” he said. “how about this?” Sans sat down in the floor, tossing the blackened soul between his palms like a toy. He didn’t look away from the smoke cloud. “if you tell me about the person that did this to you, then i’ll consider lifting your sentence a bit.”

This time the voice laughed so loudly that it echoed off the ceiling. “You’re bound by the rules of the cycle, Death!” it said. “You cannot punish me for a sin you cannot see.”

“last offer,” Sans said, catching the blackened soul in midair. “take it or leave it.”

“If you do not know, then I will not speak their name,” the voice echoed out from within the cloud. It pulled itself together, moving closer to the floor to face Sans as well as it could without a defined head.

“Know this,” it continued. “They are no _person_ , Death. They are stronger than _any_  of the gods!” The distorted voice rose so high that it cracked on the last word. “And out of all of the ones they chose, _I_  was the one who was able to hold their form for the longest.”

Sans rested his chin on his free hand. “so do you, uh, win a prize or something for that?” he asked.

“Yes!” the voice said. The smoke cloud expanded outwards again, threatening to eclipse the small bit of light coming down from above them. “Once I return to the cycle, they will find me and I will tell them what your response was. The darkness that they have given me will not erase my memory.” The cloud shivered. “Once I do, I will be given a seat of honor in their new world.”

“huh,” Sans said. “so there’s a power play going on. neat.” He leaned forward on his knees, pushing the dark soul back inside the hourglass before rocking back into his seated position.

The voice chuckled. “You won’t be thinking that for long,” it said. “Go ahead and cast your judgement. I need to know the answer.” The cloud pulled back again, looming over Sans. “What will you do? How will you judge me?” it asked. “What does Death do when he can’t cast judgment on corrupted souls?”

Sans stared back up at it for a moment. He let out a short laugh. “heh. it’s not really that complicated,” he said, looking back at the hourglass.

The cloud went still. “What?” it asked.

Sans leaned forward from where he sat, ripping the hourglass from the hole in the floor.

In the same instant, the smoke cloud seemed to shatter, dark particles flying from their position in midair back into the hourglass, where the soul absorbed them all once more.

Sans stood up, brushing the nonexistent dust off his robes, and picked up the hourglass. The floating skulls still circled outside the ring of light, following his actions with their glowing eyes. Sans walked out of the circle, ducking underneath one of the skulls, and headed over to the widest crack in the floor where the magma glowed the brightest.

Sans gazed down into it. It was hard to see against the bright light of the world’s molten core, but here and there he could still make out the outlines of souls floating through it. He heard the echoes of screams as they passed under the crack.

Every last one of the souls were red.

Sans looked away, holding up the hourglass to his face one last time. “you really thought that i’d let the most corrupted soul to ever come into the underworld go straight up into limbo?” he said to the dark hourglass. “you probably shouldn’t have mentioned the whole ‘stopping lives’ thing either.”

Sans held the hourglass over the crack in the floor by its broken chain. “here’s your answer,” he continued.

“ _go burn in hell_."

He let go.

Sans saw the glint of the light from the magma reflecting off the side of the hourglass before it disappeared into the crack. A second later Sans heard the hiss and pop of something melting below and turned away. He didn’t need to look.

The screams from the blackened soul echoed up from below, following him as he walked away.


	5. A Job

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It would be easy to say ‘and then I found Life,’ but for some reason he hesitated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just give me a second here to wipe off the dust--
> 
> Sorry for the wait! The short version is that life happened and then I got distracted by a few other fandom projects. However, I've always intended to finish this story, and it's been interesting to watch the similarities and differences between Ren's original version and mine as time marches on. However, nobody knows about any of that because I haven't updated in years, haha! So! As the story currently stands, I still haven't written all the way to the end, but I have enough ready to edit for another few chapters. Thank you for your patience, and I hope you enjoy reading it!

He couldn’t stop thinking about her.

Sans floated over the soul streams at the top of the Spiral, watching the hourglasses twinkling above him like a rainbow sky of stars. He folded his hands behind his skull as he began to drift over the hole in the Spiral, his pupils following the trajectory of a small purple soul as it moved across the dark ceiling. He frowned.

This wasn’t working.

Usually the view calmed him down, helping him forget about whatever was bothering him, but this time he couldn’t stop the thoughts running through his mind. And not only that… Ever since that day, Sans still couldn’t shake that strange pull he’d felt, one that he knew went straight to _her._

He sat up. Sans glanced towards the small cluster of green and blue hourglasses that represented the village near Life’s hiding place. To be honest, Sans had always felt a slight tug in the cycle, the same way he felt drawn towards the realm of the gods. His father had told him that it was the Cycle he was feeling, but now that sensation was sharper, amplified.

He could feel _Life_  on the other end.

It wasn’t precise. It felt like he was looking at her through a fuzzy pane of glass. Sans could feel her moving a little bit, still in her garden. Their powers created a sensation of a constant push and pull—him standing on one end, her on the other, the cycle extending between them like a rope stretched to its breaking point.

She could probably tell what he was doing too. Even the thought had caused Sans to delay his reaping for as long as possible.

He’d done that _before_  meeting Life as well, but, details.

Still, this feeling was annoying, like a fly buzzing around in his skull. Sans scratched the rim of his eye socket. What was the point in Death knowing exactly where Life was?

_And no one’s known where she’s been for almost a thousand years_ , a voice inside Sans’s head reminded him. _Until now._

Sans rested his chin on his hands, looking away from the tiny collection of souls. Life’s location _was_  valuable information...he didn’t know how to use it just yet.

Sans yawned, and glancing down at the lower levels of the Spiral stretching below him. He could see Papyrus walking up to the first level, holding a green hourglass free from corruption in his hand. The soul’s small afterimage walked alongside him—they’d either only been a kid when they’d died or were a child at heart in life. The top of the afterimage’s head didn’t even reach Papyrus’s elbow. Still, it looked like the two of them were having a good conversation. Sans could see Papyrus’s smile even from this high above them.

But as Sans glanced back towards the green soul—

All he could see was the green slowly engulfed with the red of wrath.

_No past, no future, no self. Just an infinite dark void. **Forever.**_

Sans was back in the abandoned shrine, watching the black shadow rise out of the corpse. The red glow behind hollow eyes. The laugh that sounded like a child’s. The wide grin.

_Perhaps next time you will remember me._

Papyrus and the soul moved out of sight. Sans shook himself, his robes billowing around him in midair, and took a shuddering breath.

Maybe he needed to start taking longer naps.

“—ans? Sans?” a voice echoed at him from the right.

Sans rubbed the palm of his hand over his eye sockets. He really was out of touch. He hadn’t even noticed the tear in space-time next to him.

“Can you hear me?” the voice continued. “Say something.”

“something,” Sans said, grinning to himself. A sigh came from the direction of the voice.

“You know that I dislike conversations without eye contact,” the voice said.

“that’s, uh, a little difficult,” Sans said, looking over his shoulder, still grinning. “since you didn’t give me eyes, exactly.”

Another sigh. “You know what I meant, Sans,” the voice said.

Sans turned towards the voice. Staring out at him, backlit by bright light through a midair rip in space, was a thin god with skeletal features closer to Papyrus’s than Sans’s. Two deep cracks ran out of his eye sockets and along his skull, one trailing down towards his mouth, the opposite rising up and across the dome of his head. He was frowning at Sans, arms crossed into his robes of deep purple and blue that glittered with an ever shifting design of the starry sky. The only immediate resemblance between the two was the color of their bones and the way their robes floated around them.

Sans rested his chin in his hands, grinning back at Gaster, the God of Magic.

“so what can i do for you, pop?” he asked.

Gaster’s frown grew deeper. “To be honest, Sans, I hoped that I would _not_  find you here,” he said, voice echoing. “I’d intended to ask your brother if what I’d heard lately about your work ethic was true, but I suppose that I’ve answered my own question.”

“yep, business as usual down here,” Sans said. He flipped upside down, still looking back at Gaster. “how are things with you? ever reach an agreement with the goddess of fortune on her palm-reading booth?”

“I am not here to babble about random subjects, Sans,” Gaster said, shaking his skull. “And I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve told you that you cannot ignore your duties.”

Sans shrugged, lifting his hands. “i just do things at my own pace,” he said, drifting back upright as slowly as possible. “the cycle will still be there even if i take some breaks now and then.”

Gaster closed his eyes and pushed his fingertips against his brow with a sigh. “It is not just ‘now and then,’” he said, “but I suppose we can discuss that further another time.” He lifted his head again, going back to his usual frown. “Since you _are_  here, there is something more pressing that I need to clarify with you,” he continued.

“aw, i was kind of expecting the old lecture,” Sans said, crossing his arms into his robes to mirror Gaster. “i’m pretty sure i have most of it memorized now. just a few more lines, and then—”

“Unfortunately, this is not a situation that calls for levity,” Gaster said, dropping his arms.

“i guess it doesn’t call for _brevity_  either,” Sans said with a wink.

Gaster stared at Sans for a moment. “Where is your brother?” he asked.

“wow, not even a chuckle,” Sans said, resting his chin back on one hand. “i usually get you with the obscure word puns.”

Gaster continued staring at him through the rift, still except for his ever-moving cape.

Sans shrugged. “pap’s down there,” he said, pointing with his other hand. “i can go grab him if you—”

Gaster held up a hand. “No need,” he said. “I need to talk to you specifically.”

Sans paused mid-turn, looking back at his father’s magic reflection. “ok then,” Sans said. He floated back to where he was before, crossing his legs in midair and burying his hands in his sleeves. “what is it?” he asked.

“I have spoken with the Goddess of War and the Goddess of Wisdom,” Gaster said. “They seemed a bit…disturbed by some falling hourglasses when they visited the Underworld.”

Sans’s eye sockets went dark.

“Sans,” Gaster said, sounding more like a disappointed teacher than a parent, “Why did you not report this to me?”

“i had it handled,” Sans said, his voice more constrained than before.

“ _Sans,_ ” Gaster repeated.

“you know, _handled_ ,” Sans said, miming picking something up. “like what we do with the hourglasses—”

“This is not the time for jokes,” Gaster said, the volume of his voice rising. “This number is unprecedented. Nothing like this has ever happened before in the history of this world.”

“just trying to lift our spirits a bit,” Sans said with a shrug.

Gaster crossed his arms again. “So you _did_  investigate,” he said.

“what makes you say that?” Sans asked.

“Your jokes would be far darker if you did not,” Gaster responded.

“aww, pops,” Sans said, putting his hands on his cheeks and turning away in mock embarrassment. “i didn’t know you paid attention to little ol’ me’s jokes.”

Gaster’s frown deepened again. “ _Sans_ ,” he said, his voice echoing with some of his power behind it. “This event has the potential to disrupt the balance of the Cycle. Even if it is only for a moment, stop your games. I need to know what you saw.”

Sans looked back at him, eye sockets still dark. The soft sound of rushing water from the soul streams echoed around them.

“well,” Sans started, “it’s pretty much what you’d expect from ten broken hourglasses.”

“You removed the souls?” Gaster asked, readjusting one of his sleeves.

His clinical tone made Sans retreat back a bit further into his hood.

“yeah,” he said. For a second, it felt like there was still dust trapped between his fingers. He flexed his hands. “i got them all,” Sans finished.

“Good,” Gaster said, removing a nonexistent flaw from his robe and flicking it away. “There’s something else,” he continued, looking back up at Sans. “The Goddess of Knowledge also mentioned feeling something that she could not accurately describe.” Gaster’s eyes narrowed. “As if something that should not exist pushed through the balance of the world out of sheer defiance.”

The image of hollow eye sockets glowing a faint red crossed Sans’s mind again.

“sounds like she described it pretty well,” Sans said.

“And of course you were going to tell me about this…thing,” Gaster prompted, tugging at his sleeves again.

Sans picked up on the motion. There was something strange about all this. He’d never seen the God of Magic flustered before, nor demanding of information. Sans had been under the impression that his father knew everything about the world except for things that were hidden from everyone, like Life’s garden.

Sans grinned. “i’ve been _dying_  to let you know, pop,” he said.

His father nodded in his direction, waiting without another word.

Sans began to tell him everything, but not out of a sense of obligation. As he recounted what had happened when the hourglasses fell, he watched his father’s face for any sign of a change. Despite what Gaster had claimed, he had to know something about what was going on. He’d been there at the start of this world, after all.

But Gaster’s face stayed as stony as ever.  “I imagine you followed it,” Gaster said when Sans finished.

“yep,” Sans said, starting to float horizontally. He was a little disappointed that Gaster hadn’t shown any surprise. Perhaps he’d been reading too much into his father’s actions.

“And what happened then?” Gaster asked.

Sans stared back at him with a blank smile. “uh…”

Gaster waited, the star pattern on his robe shimmering in the light.

Sans still felt her, silent in her garden. It would be easy to say ‘and then I found Life,’ but for some reason he hesitated.

She hadn’t been what he’d expected.

She’d felt him remove those souls. She’d _cried_  over them. Sans had always thought that Life only cared about replacing the souls that he took, flooding the surface with new ones while there were still plenty throughout the Cycle. He’d imagined her as impatient and selfish, like a soul distorted by greed.

But the face she’d made when she’d asked him if he’d said _ten_  souls—that hadn’t been the face of someone who didn’t care.

“ _Sans,_ ” Gaster urged. “What happened?”

“i lost track of them,” Sans shrugged.

Gaster’s eye sockets narrowed. “You didn’t just give up, did you?” he asked.

Sans rested his chin on the palm of his left hand. “maybe,” he said, smiling at Gaster.

Gaster sighed, pressing a hand to his forehead. “Sans, I’m concerned about you,” he said.

Sans cocked his skull to one side. “why?” he asked.

Gaster closed his hand into a light fist, holding it against his chest as he looked back up at Sans. “When was the last time you visited one of your shrines?” he asked.

Sans chuckled. “i don’t,” he said. “the kind of humans who worship death don’t tend to be a _lively_  bunch.”

“I expected as much,” Gaster said. His frown lightened a little, making him look more concerned than Sans had ever seen him before. “Did you know,” Gaster continued, “that the majority of shrines to Death are actually in honor of your brother?”

“oh?” Sans said, a real grin spreading across his face. “ _nice._  paps does a great job. i’m glad he’s getting the credit that he deserves.”

Gaster sighed again, placing his thumb and index finger on the bridge of his nose. “That is not what I mean, Sans,” he said. “It may get to the point that the only side that humans know of death will be through your brother.”

Sans laughed. “not likely,” he said. “not with the way they go at each other up there.”

“Mmm,” Gaster said, looking down.

“i don’t need shrines, dad,” Sans said, letting his hood fall further over his face. “they just have to know that _i’m_  the one they should be afraid of.”

“You still exist as part of the story the humans tell about Life and the Cycle,” Gaster said, a hand on his chin. It seemed more like he was talking to himself than to Sans. “But is that enough?”

“dad, i’m fine with paps being the public face for this,” Sans said, shrugging. “you were just talking about how lazy i am at my job. why add shrines and human worship to that? it’ll just turn into another thing i ignore.”

Gaster turned his eye sockets towards Sans. “You have a point…to an extent,” he admitted. His brow furrowed in thought, “But what is a god without anyone who knows who they are?”

Sans readjusted his hood before it fell all the way over his eye sockets. “getting philosophical today, huh dad?” he said.

“We are getting off topic,” Gaster said, suddenly curt. He dropped his arms again, his starry robe flaring around him.

“Sans. I want you to investigate the anomaly that you felt. Find out where it went, down to its exact location if possible.”

He blinked back at Gaster in confusion. “wait,” Sans said, holding up a hand. “i already told you that I los—“

A hand clamped down on Sans’s shoulder, cutting him off.

“HELLO FATHER!”

Sans looked up to see Papyrus floating right behind him, beaming at them both with his wide smile. “YOU SHOULD’VE LET US KNOW THAT YOU WERE GOING TO CALL!” Papyrus said. “I WOULD’VE PREPARED A REPORT FOR YOU.”

Gaster turned a small smile in Papyrus’s direction. “There was no need for that, son,” he said. “I am only checking in.”

Papyrus rested his other hand on Sans’s opposite shoulder so that he was leaning over Sans’s skull. “I JUST ESCORTED A SOUL BACK INTO THE CYCLE!” Papyrus said, his smile getting even bigger. “I THINK THAT THEY’LL DO GREAT THINGS WITH THEIR LIFE THIS TIME AROUND.”

“Good to hear,” Gaster said with a nod.

“hey, bro,” Sans said, leaning his skull back into Papyrus’s chest so that he could look up at him. “guess what dad just told me.”

Papyrus squinted down at him with a frown. “IS THIS THE SETUP FOR A JOKE?” he asked.

Sans put a hand to his chest in mock shock. “it’s almost like you don’t trust me, pap,” he said. “but nah, no joke. dad said that the humans have a bunch of shrines for you now.”

Papyrus’s smile immediately returned. “REALLY?” he said. He turned back towards Gaster, beaming. “THAT’S REALLY HAPPENING?”

“it’s because you do such a good job, bro,” Sans said, smiling at his reaction.

Papyrus sniffed, wiping away a tear from one of his eye sockets. “I JUST WANT TO HELP AS MUCH AS I CAN,” he said. “BUT I’M GLAD THAT THE HUMANS APPRECIATE IT!”

Sans reached up to pat his brother on the shoulder. As he did so, he caught a glimpse of Gaster—for just a moment, he was smiling at the two of them the way Sans had seen human parents smile as they watched their children at play.

But in the next instant that look was gone, replaced with his blank, polite smile.

“It is good you’re here, Papyrus,” Gaster said. “I was just informing Sans of a job I needed him to do. In the meantime, you might have to take over for some of Sans’s work.”

“what,” Sans said, his hand dropping from Papyrus’s shoulder.

“THAT’S FINE BY ME!” Papyrus said. “I’M ALMOST ALWAYS DOING THAT ANYWAY.”

Sans looked back and forth between Papyrus and Gaster, greeted by his father’s disapproving glare once again.

“Hopefully he will finish this job _quickly_  and release you from your extra burden,” Gaster continued. “But in the meantime, I trust that you can handle this, Papyrus.”

Papyrus nodded, his bright smile still on his face. “I WON’T LET YOU DOWN, DAD!” he said.

Sans set his jaw. He’d caught the emphasis.

“Sans,” Gaster said, looking back at him. “When you find what I asked you to look for, contact me immediately. I will handle it.”

“wait,” Sans said, squinting at Gaster. “you think i can’t reap whatever this thing is?”

“It is not that. I have no doubt in your abilities,” Gaster said, but he looked down when he said it. “But if this _is_  what I think it is, then it is something that _I_  have to take care of.”

Sans stared back at him in silence for a moment. He had a lot of questions, but he doubted Gaster would answer any of them right now.

Papyrus glanced between Sans and Gaster. “WHAT IS IT YOU’RE LOOKING FOR?” he asked. “MAYBE I CAN HELP WITH THAT INSTEAD…? SANS WILL PROBABLY JUST SLACK OFF ON THIS JOB TOO.”

But Gaster shook his skull. “If Sans has enough time to put off his reaping until the last possible moment,” he said, “Then he has plenty of time to track down this…anomaly in the cycle.”

“OH!” Papyrus said. “YOU MEAN THAT…THING? FROM THE OTHER DAY?”

“you got it, bro,” Sans said, but he didn’t break eye contact with Gaster.

“Let him or I know if you feel that sensation again,” Gaster said to Papyrus. “You both must fulfill your duty to the Cycle and make sure that this…thing does not cause any lasting damage.”

“I KNOW! I’LL GO CHECK ON THE SOUL STREAMS AGAIN!” Papyrus said. “AND I’LL LET YOU KNOW IF I FEEL ANYTHING!” Papyrus flew off towards the top of the Spiral, turning back and waving at them both as he went. “DON’T WORRY! WE WON’T LOSE ANY MORE TRAPPED SOULS ON MY WATCH!”

Sans waved after him even as he felt Gaster’s gaze burning a hole into his back.

“Trapped souls?” Gaster asked.

Sans turned around slowly, his black robe following his movements like a dark cloud. “you never told him what happens when hourglasses fall,” Sans said with a grin, “so i made something up.”

“Why would you keep that from him?” Gaster asked, his face unreadable.

“he thinks of souls as friends,” Sans said. “finding out that they were removed would… _crush_  him, you know?”

Sans laughed at his own bad joke.

Gaster closed his eyes. “Then I will defer to your judgement on this,” he said. “But remember that your brother is Death just as much as you are. It is not good to hide things from him.”

Gaster sighed one last time, and Sans finally noticed the dark marks under his eye sockets.

“you should probably take a break, dad,” Sans said. “it looks like you’re starting to _crack_  under the pressure.”

Gaster smoothed a hand over the cracks in his skull. His expression did not change. “Yes,” he said, “You’re probably right. …We will speak again soon.”

The rift in the air began to fade into a mist.

“Remember,” Gaster said, his voice echoing even more. “Contact me the moment you find it.”

The rift disappeared into nothing, as if it had never been there at all.

Sans glanced in the direction Papyrus had flown off in. He could see his brother near the blue soul stream again, circling it as he checked for problems. Sans sighed.

“if he just wants me to look around, he doesn’t have to play games about it,” Sans grumbled.

He tilted his head up at the ceiling. He couldn’t hide from his father, but he had no leads to go off of. There had to be a way to keep Papyrus from coming into contact with a corrupted soul that might make him change his outlook on humans while still keeping Gaster off his back.

As Sans’s eyes drifted across the galaxies of colored hourglasses, he felt a pull.

He’d almost forgotten. There was still _one_  potential lead.

His grin grew wider.

Sans glanced back towards where he’d seen Papyrus. His brother was still preoccupied with the soul stream. Sans looked back up at the hourglasses, focusing on the point where he could feel Life’s pushback in the Cycle.

With a flash of blue light, he was gone.


End file.
